Historical sketch of the First Baptist Church, Wilmington, N.C., 1808-1933

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-North Carolina State Library
* • * * Raleigh, N. C.
HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF THE
FIRST
APTIST CHURCH
WILMINGTON, N. C.
1808—1933
BY
J. MARCUS KESTER, Pastor
125TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
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Presented by
Mrs. Sam A. J3iaes
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Celebration
125th Anniversary
April 12, 13, 1933
Wednesday, April 12, 7:45 P. M.
Organ selection Mrs. T. J. Head, Organist
Hymn: "Faith of Our Fathers" Congregation
Invocation The Pastor
Reading of Psalm 84 The Pastor
Chorus: "Glory Be to God on High" By Mozart
By Voices from Choirs of the City
Reading of the "Historical Sketch of Church"
Prayer. Rev. A. J. Barton, D. D.
Doxology and Benediction.
Thursday, April 13, 7:45 P. M.
Organ selection Mrs. T. J. Head, Organist
Anthem: "Send Out Thy Light" Quartet
Invocation Rev. L. R. O'Brian
Hymn: "I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord" Congregation
Reading the Anniversary Greetings.
Anthem: "As It Began to Dawn" By Quartet
Greetings from other churches of the city.
Hymn: "Blest Be the Tie That Binds" Congregation
Benediction Rev. Ernest C. Kolb, Windsor, N. C.
Fellowship Social in the Social Hall of Church.
Dr. W. T. Smith,
Mr. J. L. Baldwin,
Mrs. A. M. Alderman,
Dr. J. D. Freeman,
Mrs. E. P. Brock,
Mrs T. J. Head,
Program Committee.
TO THE
Deacons, Members, Friends
of THE
First Baptist Church
ANNIVERSARY GREETINGS
Read at the Celebration
From Rev. A. D. P. Gilmour, D. D., Pastor First Presby-terian
Church, City
My Dear Dr. Kester:
In behalf of my congregation and myself, personally,
I just wish to send you these few lines of greetings
and congratulations on the occasion of the celebration
of the 125th anniversary of the organization of your
church.
It is a great thing to have stood in a community for
a century and a quarter for the highest things of the
spirit and it is simply impossible to calculate, accord-ing
to any human and earthly standards, the value of
your service to Wilmington throughout this long period
of time, when many generations have come and gone.
May the Lord bless you and keep you,
May the Lord lift up His countenance unto you
and be gracious unto you,
May the Lord cause His face to shine upon you
and give you peace, both now and in the life
everlasting.
Most cordially,
From Dr. W. B. Oliver, Louisville, Ky., Pastor, 1893-
1898, received too late to be read at the
Celebration.
Dear Brethren:
Permit a voice out of the past to bear you a word of
greeting and congratulation. Probably the oldest ex-pastor
in years,—certainly so in terms of service,—
I
join in the acclaim and good wishes of this anniversary
occasion with wholeheartedness.
Perhaps no other, of all those who have been privil-eged
to serve the old First Church, has been so uniquely
connected with its history. I was present,—a small
lad,—when the church was dedicated, and well remem-ber
how proudly—and justly—the brethren spoke of it
as the "prettiest and most churchly'' house of worship
south of Baltimore.
It was during my pastorate that the first Sunday
School Annex was completed and put into use. I was
among those who joined with Pastor Hurt in the cele-bration
when the new Sunday School building was com-pleted.
So,—for more than 60 years I have seen the
growth of your magnificent plant.
During my pastorate, which began forty years ago
—
(March, 1893)—a mission was started which devel-oped
into the Southside Church.
And as your pastor I welcomed the Southern Bap-tist
Convention to our city by the sea, and in this next
to the last free entertainment of that great body, I
witnessed the most striking example of Christian unity
and community spirit that I ever saw or knew of.
Everybody—irrespective of creed, took part in it.
And so, I know the kind of folk you are, and while
many of those who so patiently and helpfully labored
with me have entered upon their reward, and a new
generation fills their place, I believe that better days
of larger and richer service are for the church—not
aged, but just come to maturity.
May God's richest blessings abide upon you all and
your pastor, and may each year make you a greater
factor in Kingdom work.
Your Brother in Christ,
W. B. OLIVER.
From Rev. J. H. Foster, D. D., Pastor First Baptist
Church, Ashland, Va., Pastor 1909-1915
"Unto the Church of God,
Which is at Wilmington.
"To them that are sanctified in Christ, Jesus, called
to be saints; grace be unto you and peace from God
our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank
my God always on your behalf for the grace of God
which is given you by Jesus Christ that in everything
ye are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowl-edge,
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in
you."
I am persuaded that there is no church in the South-land
to which this commendation of Paul may be more
appropriately applied than to the old First Church at
Wilmington.
Ever in my memory remains the record of your loy-alty,
sacrificial service and zeal for our Father's House.
Added to the ties that were formed while we were
with you, the fact that we have left with you part of
our very selves has intensified our interest in all the
progress the Church is making.
May the blessing of God rest upon pastor and people
and may you continue to grow in favor with God and
man.
Cordially and fraternally,
From Rev. M. 0. Alexander, Pastor First Baptist
Church, Thomasville, N. C, Assistant Pastor
1911-1913
Dear Dr. Kester:
I am greatly honored by being remembered in con-nection
with the history of the First Baptist Church
of Wilmington. I am justly proud of my relationship
with the church through a period of more than eight
years. I was not only the first assistant pastor of First
Church, Wilmington, but first to serve in that capacity
among Baptist churches in North Carolina, the First
Church took the lead in giving the pastor help. Miss
Nettie King (now Mrs. Gore) was employed by the
church at the time, this was during 1911-13. I wish
to extend best wishes and hearty congratulations upon
the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of this
church that has served so well and written its name
permanently not only in Baptist history, but also in
the history of North Carolina. "Many shall rise up to
call her blessed." It was this church that did so much
to hearten and encourage me. Some of the most help-ful
and inspiring experiences of my life are associated
with this church. The W. M. U. of the First Church,
sent me to the Seminary at Louisville in 1913. It was
from this church I was appointed Chaplain in U. S.
Navy in 1915. The church kept in touch with me
throughout the World War. The most loyal friends I
have known were members of this church, some of them
still there, many have passed on. I bless God and the
church for these good friends. I was ordained in
First Church, Wilmington, in 1913, just twenty years
ago, Dr. J. H. Foster, Rev. J. A. Sullivan and Rev.
W. G. Hall were on the council of ordination as were
the Deacons of the church.
While I was serving as assistant to Dr. Foster, I or-ganized
the church at Winter Park Garden and was its
first pastor. I organized the church at Delgado (now
Gibson Avenue, I believe) and Mr. L. W. Moore was
Superintendent of the Sunday School. He really kept
that work going in its early years, giving liberally of
his time and money to it. I preached at Castle Hayne
and Wrightsboro churches during this period also and
established a mission at Farmers, some miles from
Wilmington.
I would like to mention individuals, how happily I
remember them, but the list would be long and for the
moment I might possibly overlook some of the best
loved. I just send sincere love to all who are there and
especially to those who were associated with me in
the other days.
I want to express my love for the church and my
deep gratitude for her great help to me personally.
May she live and serve throughout all the years, until
His Kingdom comes.
My love abides and my prayers continue for the
Great Old Church and her beloved and honored pastor.
Cordially,
Isaiah 50:7—"For the Lord God will keep me: there-fore
shall I not be confounded : therefore have I set my
face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be
ashamed."
From Rev. W. Marshall Craig, D. D., Pastor Gaston
Avenue Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, Assistant
Pastor 1913-1915, Acting Pastor 1915-1916
My very dear Friends:
It gives me unspeakable joy to avail myself of this
opportunity to send a message of personal greetings,
as you come to this glad occasion, the 125th anniver-sary
of your noble and historic church.
As you meet today, I greet you with deep gratitude
to God for permitting me to begin my humble minis-terial
labors in your midst. Many of you, perhaps,
will recall that I had the honor of being ordained in
your great church, and spent the first three years of
my ministry in service with you. It is quite natural,
then, that your church should have a place of peculiar
affection in my heart. The old First Church, Wil-mington,
is dearer to me than words can express. I
cherish the memory of those years, which were among
the happiest of my life. I shall never forget your every
kindness, beautiful expressions of friendship, whole-hearted
co-operation and earnest words of encourage-ment
to the young preacher, who was just starting out
in the ministry. Although many years have passed
since I served as assistant to my good friend, Dr. J. H.
Foster, and many changes have taken place, I fre-quently
find myself living over again in fondest mem-ory
many of the delightful experiences of these blessed
years. It is difficult, I confess, to resist the almost
overwhelming temptation to write in detail of those
memorable experiences and friendships, but with your
crowded program for the day I must not burden you
with a long message. However, it is in my heart to
say, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of
you."
All through the years I have followed the progress
of your work with unusual interest. From my first
day of Gospel fellowship with you, in 1913, unto this
very hour, I have been deeply impressed with your
loyalty to Christ, your generous response to every
Kingdom appeal, your wonderful and passionate mis-sionary
spirit, and your sincere desire to know and do
the will of our heavenly Father. Not once has the old
church wavered, but with abiding faith in our Lord
and ever-increasing devotion to Him, you have pressed
forward to loftier heights of service and achievement
in His name. On this 125th anniversary occasion, I
extend heartiest congratulations upon such a chal-lenging
record as your church has made through its
long and illustrious history. Then too, I rejoice with
you and your beloved and consecrated pastor, as you
review the marvelous progress during the several years
of your labors together. The signal success of the
church, under the able leadership of that noble man
of God, Dr. Kester, has gladdened my heart. I wish
for you, dear friends, an even larger measure of
heaven's blessings, as the years come and go. It gives
me much pleasure, I assure you, to send this word of
greeting, and to express the hope that you will have a
glorious anniversary occasion.
With love to all the church family and other friends
in the City by the Sea, and wishing for each of you in-creasing
happiness and success in the service of Christ,
I remain,
Gratefully and affectionately yours,
10
From Rev. John Jeter Hurt, D. D., President Union
University, Jackson, Tenn., Pastor 1915-1923
My brethren Beloved:
I salute you in the Lord on the occasion of your
125th anniversary. The years I spent in your fellow-ship
are enshrined evermore within the secret cham-bers
of my heart. The ties of friendship formed dur-ing
those blessed years will remain unbroken thru all
the tides of time and eternity.
You and I rejoice greatly in the achievements of
the dear Old Church within our generation. Such ac-complishments
have been made possible by reason of
the fact that the fathers chose their locations wisely
and laid the foundations deep and strong. We entered
into a blessed heritage and received from their hands
the commitment of a task upon which they, themselves,
had wrought heroically and effectively. They saw with
prophetic eyes a city and an opportunity for service
which was far beyond the reach of natural vision. God,
Himself, gave to them a vision which was possible only
to the eyes of faith. We who come after them must
learn from their example. We must so press the bat-tle,
thru experiences of depression as well as of exulta-tion,
so that those who come after us may rejoice in
the fact that we too did our best in our days of oppor-tunity.
Time and distance have separated you and me. But
I rejoice greatly to know that you carry on with forti-tude
and faith. He who leads you today is God's
anointed one and I pray earnestly that pastor and peo-ple
may work together in the abiding consciousness
that the Head of the Church smiles continuously upon
your work with approval.
With affectionate regards to all whom I know and
fervent good wishes to everyone, I am
Yours earnestly,
11
From Rev. D. H. Wilcox, Assistant Pastor First Bap-tist
Church of Winston-Salem, N. C, Assistant
Pastor 1916-1923, Acting Pastor 1923-1924
My dearly Beloved:
On this your One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Anni-versary
I send you my warm and hearty greetings,
and pray God that He may give you a double portion
of His Holy Spirit to guide you in the paths erf His
righteousness as you walk through the dark shadows
of the difficult times through which we are now pass-ing.
I rejoice with exceeding joy when I think of the
years spent with you in the service of our Master. I
think of these years of fellowship and service together
as the happiest years of my life. I express my grati-tude
to you in the words of the poet, for his words
seem to express my feeling perfectly as I think of
you today.
"For sunlit hours and visions clear,
For all remembered faces dear,
For comrades of a single day,
Who sent us stronger on our way,
For friends who shared the year's long road,
And bore with us the common load,
For hours that levied heavy tolls,
But brought us nearer to our goals,
For insights won through toil and tears,
We thank the Keeper of our years."
May your glorious past be a stimulus to urge you
on in your efforts to keep the home fires burning, and
to spread the gospel of the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords to earth's remotest bounds.
Affectionately yours in Christ Jesus,
12
HISTORICAL SKETCH
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
WILMINGTON, N. C.
By
J. MARCUS KESTER, Pastor
In writing the history of a great human-divine in-stitution
such as a church one wishes it were possible
to convey something of the emotions and sentiments
that rightfully belong to it. Anxieties, aspirations,
heartaches, joys and triumphs, all are involved in the
making of a church. But, alas, these cannot be ade-quately
expressed in ink.
We would approach the history of this church with
deep reverence. The story is full of the deep breath-ings
of those who were "the salt of the earth." They
lived and built for God in a great way. We who are
now enjoying the fruits of their labor can never know
all that went into the making of the church which has
come down to us.
During its history the church has sent forth, either
licensed or ordained, no less than sixteen ministers.
The following were licensed and perhaps ordained:
W. F. Jones, E. L. Hawkins, A. W. Stamford, J. F.
Westcott, J. W. Denmark. The following were or-dained
here: A. J. Battle, G. W. Newell, G. M. L.
Finch, Edward Eagles (colored), T. J. Wescott, E. S.
Alderman, J. R. Marshall, Eugene G. Mintz, M. 0. Alex-ander,
W. Marshall Craig, and D. H. Wilcox. Some of
these are now in the prime of life and doing a great
work for the Lord.
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Not only has the church sent forth a large group of
ministers, it has fostered and started a number of im-portant
churches: Calvary, Southside, Winter Park,
Gibson Avenue, Wrightsville Sound, Castle Hayne, and
Farmers, the last three are not now in existence. And,
in addition to these, although it did not organize, this
church furnished a large number of members for the
formation of the Wrightsboro and Temple churches.
The combined membership of the First and all these
other churches is now beyond four thousand.
During its life, the church has exerted an influence in
three Associations as well as in the State and Southern
Baptist Conventions. The church was first received in-to
the Cape Fear Association. When that Association
was divided in 1826, the Wilmington Church fell into
the new Association, then called the Goshen, later the
Union, and still later the Eastern. Since 1900 the
church has been an active member of the Wilmington
Association.
For the main part of the history we are indebted to
a long list of faithful clerks. One of these, J. W. Col-lins,
served three periods covering sixteen years. Two
others—William Larkins and William B. Muse—served
fourteen years each, and our recent clerk, J. L. Bald-win,
served nine years. Others serving from one to
five years were George R. French, the first clerk on
our records, Isham Peterson, J. I. Bryan, D. Cashwell,
C. W. and W. P. Oldham, J. J. Clemmons, George E.
Leftwich, F. L. Huggins, E. S. Lathrop, F. T. Allen.
Our present clerk is J. Sheppard Lane.
In order to give the history in as practical a way as
possible, we are dividing it into periods of twenty-five
years each.
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I.
From First to Second Organization, 1808-1833
According to the authentic records of the Cape Fear
Association, the church was organized sometime prev-ious
to October 1, 1808. On that date the Association
meeting in Moore's Creek Church has this notation:
"Received a newly constituted church in fellowship
from Wilmington by letter and delegates." The dele-gates
were John Larkins and Peter Smyth, a licensed
preacher. The church reported twenty members and
contributed to the work of the Association ten shil-lings,
English money.
The following year, 1809, Simon Sellars and Reuben
Everitt were the delegates. They reported twenty-four
members and gave ten shillings. There is no rec-ord
for 1810. In 1811, Reuben Everitt and P. Smyth
were the delegates and they reported twenty members
and gave $1.50 to the work. The records of the Cape
Fear Association show that the church was represented
almost every year until 1826 when the Association
was divided and the Wilmington church became a mem-ber
of the new Association. The church was growing
from year to year. In 1826 the report showed forty-five
members.
Unfortunately we have no records in the church it-self
for this period. We know nothing as to its build-ings,
struggles, revivals, etc. Neither do we know defin-itely
as to its pastors except as reflected in the min-utes
of the Cape Fear Association. Since Rev.
Jonathan Bryan, an ordained minister, was a delegate
to the Association two years in succession, 1824 and
1825, it may be inferred that he was the pastor.
Evidently the church had a set-back after it became
a member of the new Association in 1827; for we do
not have a report for that year or the next, and in 1829
15
the report showed only thirty-four members, a loss of
eleven members since 1826. The delegates in 1829
were J. King and Morris Parker. The church grew
rather rapidly for the next few years, reporting fifty-three
members in 1831, sixty-three in 1832, and eighty
nine in 1833.
The delegates to the Goshen Association in 1833 were
Elder J. C. Grigg, the pastor, and Dennis Collins and
H. Costin. The pastor also represented the church at
the meeting of the Baptist State Convention that year.
He was made chairman of the committee on Sabbath
Schools and made a splendid report. Most likely the
church had a Sunday school at that time. The church
sent ten dollars to the State Convention to be used for
Home and Foreign Missions and Education.
This brings us into the year of the re-organization
of the church and so into the second period of its his-tory
:
II.
From Second Organization to New Building, 1833-1858
For some reason which we do not know, the church
organized itself anew on April 13, 1833. Until recently
when the Cape Fear Association minutes showed dif-ferently
this date was taken as the time of the found-ing
of the church. We have a record of this new or-ganization.
It reads : "We whose names are hereunto
subscribeB being assembled in the Baptist Meeting
House in the Town of Wilmington, N. C. . . . do hereby
on this the thirteenth of April in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three mosi:
solemnly agree among ourselves to become a regular
independent constituted Church of our Lord and Sav-iour
Jesus Christ." The fact that a Baptist Meeting
House already existed shows that a church had prev-
16
iously existed. Just why it was thought necessary
to reorganize we do not know. Our guess is that there
was some trouble over missions, Sunday School work,
or the work of the Baptist State Convention which had
just been in existence three years. According to Dr.
G. W. Paschal, author of the "History of North Caro-lina
Baptists," many churches about this time did re-organize
themselves.
The names of the charter members of the new or-ganization
and also the minutes of the church for three
years are torn from the minute book. From the rec-ords
of the Baptist State Convention we learn that
Rev. A. W. Chambliss, the pastor, and Rev. W. J.
Findlay, an agent of the State Convention in this sec-tion,
represented the church in the Convention in 1835.
The pastor was made a member of the committee on
periodicals and was chairman of the committee on tem-perance.
The church sent ten dollars to the work of
missions and education and Rev. Mr. Findlay made a
personal contribution of sixteen dollars to the same
causes.
The first church conference record is that which
was held on December 31, 1836. At that time a "Sister
Ward" was received from the Baptist Church of Oliver
Street, New York, and a committee consisting of Breth-ren
French, Costin, Sholar, Bryan, Thally, and Hewlett,
was appointed "to ascertain the possible cost of re-pairing
the meeting house."
The next conference reported was held two months
later, February 4, 1837. A Rev. Mr. Hawby acted as
moderator and Rev. James McDaniel of Fayetteville
addressed the meeting. The committee appointed at
the December conference was asked to see whether or
not a minister might be secured.
It was over a year until the next conference reported,
May 28, 1838. Then Rev. William Culpepper acted as
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North Carolina State Library
- Raleigh, N. C.
chairman and Rev. James McDaniel led in prayer. At
this conference a letter of dismission was granted a
colored member, named Hannah, to unite with a church
in Alabama.
The first record of a regular pastor is found in min-utes
for April 5, 1839. It reads: "Resolved that
Brother A. P. Repiton be, and continue as pastor of this
church as long as the pastor and members shall agree."
They did not agree very long. At the end of the year
the pastor resigned because of a disagreement with
Brother French. However, a few years later, he was
made pastor again, as we shall see.
The pastor in 1842 and a part of 1843 was Rev. A. J.
Battle. It was during his pastorate that the church
experienced a great spiritual awakening. A revival,
which began on March 2nd, lasted until the summer.
About one hundred persons united with the church.
Not only were the white people stirred, but great num-bers
of Negroes were converted. At the July confer-ence
seventeen Negroes presented themselves for mem-bership
; but they were then received only as "mourn-ers."
Later on many of them were received into the
church.
The Rev. A. P. Repiton was again made pastor in
1843 and served for about a year. In his closing mes-sage
to the church he made some remarks which were
taken to mean that he thought he had been treated
unjustly by the church, or some members of it. These
remarks stirred the church deeply and brought on a
terrible church row. At one conference the members
became so enraged that a number arose and went nois-ily
out of the room. Those who remained felt that for
such boisterous conduct those who had gone out should
be expelled from membership and proceeded to do so.
Some, however, came back in and apologized and were
kept in the membership. Others were so broken up
18
over the matter that they organized another church,
known as the Orange Street Baptist Church some-where
about Sixth and Orange Street, with Repiton as
pastor. This church existed some fifteen years. The
church house, I understand, was burned during the
Civil War, and the church disbanded. Many of the
members returned to the Front Street Church, as this
church was then called. The pastor, A. P. Repiton, was
also invited to supply the Front Street Church during
the absence of the pastor due to illness.
So much for the pastorate of A. P. Repiton. On
October 1, 1844, Rev. James McDaniel became the pas-tor
1 of the church. McDaniel was a strong man and a
leader among the Baptists of his day. He was one of
the founders of the Baptist State Convention and for
nineteen years was its president. He was at his prime
during his pastorate here and led the church forward
in many ways. It was during his pastorate that
the Southern Baptist Convention was organized, and
he and Brother Havens were sent as messengers to the
organization meeting in 1845.
From the records it appears that from January
1845 on the colored members held their meetings sepa-rately
from the white members; at least they held
their conference meetings at a different time. On Jan-uary
2, 1845, the use of the church building was granted
to Brother A. J. Battle "for the purpose of preaching
to the colored people on Sabbath afternoons and with
a view of collecting an African congregation." On May
26, 1845, two colored deacons, Harry Burgwin and
Marion Walker, were chosen for the colored portion of
the church.
Brother James McDaniel closed his pastorate with
the church in 1851. Rev. W. H. Jordan was then called
and began his work early in 1852. Rev. Mr. Jordan
was a native of Bertie County, this State. He was edu-
19
cated at the University, and for several years was the
Corresponding Secretary of the Baptist State Conven-tion.
He was a man with a strong evangelistic appeal.
During all these years the church held a high stand-ard
for its members. It expected them to livq right
and to be active in their support of the church. ! On
one occasion, September 24, 1855, we read this: "Re-solved
that the members of the church be cited to
attend here next Sabbath morning to signify their de-sire
or intention to continue their membership, and
that on failing to do so either present, or represented
by letter or proxy, their names to be erased from the
church membership." All members were expected to
attend the conferences, and failing to do so, or to give
a reasonable excuse, were expelled from the church.
Rev. W. H. Jordan closed his work as pastor of the
church in September, 1855. In February of the fol-lowing
year, 1856, the notable pastorate of Rev. John
Lamb Prichard began. He was called from Lynchburg,
Va., and in the call it was stipulated that a new and
more commodious house of worship would be erected.
So he at once set himself to that task. At a confer-ence
held on September 22, 1856, a committee, consist-ing
of the pastor and Brethren Ellis, French, Mitchell,
Parker, Larkins, and Hallet, was appointed to consider
the matter of building a new church house.
At a conference held the next Spring, April 20, 1857,
a vote was taken on the location of the new building.
Of those voting, twenty-one voted for a new location,
and three voted to build on the location of the church
at that time, namely, corner of Front and Ann Streets.
It was not until January 19, 1858, that the location was
agreed upon. At that time George R. French recom-mended
the purchase of a lot running 120 feet on Mar-ket
Street and 165 feet on Fifth Street, at a cost of
20
$4,000.00. At the May conference the lot was pur-chased
from John J. Connally for $4,500.00, he giving
$500.00 of the amount.
The plans for the new building and the purchase of
the lot may well mark the beginning of the third period
in the history of the church.
III.
From New Building to Dr. Pritchard, 18580.883
At a conference, November 29, 1858, a building com-mittee
was appointed, and in December a sub-com-mittee
of the building committee was asked to visit
other outstanding churches to secure suggestions and
information about church buildings. The sub-commit-tee,
consisting of the pastor, Dr. J. L. Prichard, and
George R. French, visited Richmond, Washington, Bal-timore,
and other places. On April 18, 1859, the build-ing
committee recommended that a Mr. Sloan of Phila-delphia
be the architect and that the church be modeled
after the Fredericksburg church. The model finally
decided upon was Early English Gothic with two tow-ers,
a high tower and a lower one.
The cost of such a large building was necessarily
great, and the membership was small, only two hun-dred
and forty-two members, and a number of these
were slaves and others poor. However, the church
courageously faced its task. On February 14, 1859,
over ten thousand dollars were subscribed toward the
building. In April the pastor was asked to visit other
churches and conventions with a view of securing other
funds for the building. As a result of one tour the
pastor reported $848.37 in cash and $422.00 in pledges.
By November 9, 1860, $19,828.00 had been subscribed
21
toward the new project and $11,028.00 had been al-ready
collected and disbursed. We have no definite
figures as to the total cost of the building; but, judg-ing
by the amounts mentioned from time to time, and
by the debt on the church some years after the building
was completed, it must have cost fifty or sixty thou-sand
dollars, and perhaps more.
The building was started in a great way. Everything
looked bright. Then came the terrible Civil War of
1861-1865. And, in spite of all the heroic band could
do it was impossible to complete the structure. In
"The Memoirs of Dr. J. L. Prichard", we are told how
he eagerly watched the erection of the1 building. On
one day he would mention in his diary that a certain
side was up, and on another day another wall, or win-dow.
He was interested in every brick that went into
the edifice.
One thing which greatly helped in the erection of
the church was a spiritual revival which swept the
town in 1858. This notation is made in the Memoirs
of Dr. Prichard: "Early in the spring of 1858, Wil-mington
was visited with the most remarkable relig-ious
awakening known in the city." Sunrise prayer
meetings were held each morning for some two months.
The First, or Front Street Baptist Church as it was
then called, received about a hundred members. Other
churches also received many.
The religious revival not only prepared for the new
building and the sacrifice involved in such a task, it
also prepared the city for the worst scourge it has ever
experienced, the yellow fever epidemic of 1862. The
packet-boat, "Kate", brought the yellow fever to the
city in July. For awhile it was scarcely noticed. But
in September its deadly work began, and rapidly grew
worse. The first week in October 267 cases and 32
22
deaths were reported ; the next week, 395 cases and 40
deaths; the following week, 431 cases and 102 deaths;
and the next week, 194 cases and 111 deaths. By No-vember
the epidemic was over; but large groups of
people had left the city and everything was broken up.
Thirty-seven per cent of the cases resulted in death.
During all this awful period Dr. J. L. Prichard, the
pastor of this church, along with one or two other
pastors, stuck to his post of duty. Mrs. Prichard and
the children had gone to Richmond in August for a
visit, and they were advised by Dr. Prichard not to
return during the epidemic. Dr. Prichard had his sis-ter
with him during the time. When she was stricken
with the fever he remained with her as much as pos-sible
in addition to visiting as many others of the sick
as he could. About the middle of October Dr. Prich-ard
himself was stricken with the deadly malady. He
rallied for a time, but could not overcome, and so passed
to his reward on November 13, 1862. He was buried
in Oakdale, the cemetery of the city he had served so
faithfully for six years.
Dr. Prichard is the only pastor who has died while
pastor of this church. In view of what has been writ-ten
about him, it is needless to say that the church
greatly loved Dr. Prichard. They had such confidence
in him that soon after his coming to the church, the
church ceased its old custom of calling a pastor year
by year. After his death, the church passed resolu-tions
which speak of their high esteem for him. One
paragraph of the resolutions especially reveals his serv-ice
during the yellow fever epidemic, and this we quote
:
"Although frequently urged to leave, his universal re-ply
was 'The poor need my assistance and I must re-main
and do what I can'. Thus he lived for the good
of mankind and when danger threatened he faltered
23
not, but, like a true soldier of the-cross, he stood firmly
and died at his post, died a martyr in the cause of
humanity."
Due to the impoverished conditions brought on by
the war, and the sad conditions which followed the
yellow fever peril, the church could not do much. The
loss of their noble leader left them in a sad plight.
However, they rallied as best they could and tried to
secure another pastor. Their first efforts were unsuc-cessful.
It was not until the spring of 1864 that they
secured Rev. W. M. Young, a native of Scotland, at
that time pastor of a church in Williamsburg, Va.
The church having left its old building on Front
Street and the new structure not completed had to
hold its meetings in the Town Hall. The war-time
conditions are reflected in the records of this period
in several ways. The pastor is away visiting the sol-diers.
Rev. A. Paul Repiton, pastor of the Orange
Street Church, is referred to as chaplain. Even the
salary of the pastor reflects the war. He was to re-ceive
in 1864 six thousand dollars, and for; 1865, his
salary was placed at ten thousand dollars, the highest
salary ever paid by the church. But, alas, in 1866, he
only received fifteen hundred dollars!
One other item during this time will be of peculiar
interest. At the conference held November 7, 1864, a
request was received from the colored members asking
that they be allowed to hold their worship services
among themselves. The request was approved and
we hear no more of the colored members in the church,
except that on May 26, 1867, Edward Eagles, a colored
preacher was ordained by the church. We suppose that
the colored members of this church formed the church
now known as the First Baptist Church, colored,
which still exists on North Fifth Street.
24
Rev. W. M. Young resigned as pastor in October
1867, and for about a year the church was without a
pastor. Then Rev. J. C. Hiden of Portsmouth, Va.,
was called and accepted. He set out at once to com-plete
the building. Various methods were resorted to
in order to secure funds for the completion of the
great building started some ten years before. Boxes
for free-will offerings were placed in the leading stores.
Visits were made to other churches and conventions.
Finally it was decided to rent the pews. It is reported
that in February 1869, the pews rented for the sum
of $10,575.00. In addition to all these means of secur-ing
funds, the church borrowed five thousand dollars
more.
So the building was finally completed, and the
crowning event of all this period took* place, namely,
the dedication of the building on Sunday, May 1, 1870.
Dr. E. T. Winkler, pastor of the Citadel Square Church
of Charleston, S. C, preached at the morning hour,
and Dr. Thomas H. Pritchard preached at the evening
hour. That was indeed a great day in the history of
this church ; for it marked a new day for the Baptists
in this city and section. In their new church house,
the Baptists had a building which would rank with any
in the country. It still stands as a monument to their
vision and consecration. The membership in 1871 was
only 210 and 145 of these were women and children
and only 65 were men. What faith and what devotion
they must have had
!
The bell for the new building was presented to the
church on December 4, 1871 by Brother George R.
French. It was made in part from the old bell which
was sent to Boston to be recast. So the bell that still
calls us to worship carries with it the call which rung
over a century ago. This fact alone ought to help us
25
to be faithful to our day as those radiant souls were to
theirs in years now long gone.
It will be of interest to know that for some years
atfer the new building was erected the Sunday School
was not permitted to meet on the main floor of the
auditorium. Its sessions were held in the balcony.
This caused much discussion from time to time. Final-ly,
in 1875, the Sunday School was allowed to hold its
opening and closing exercises on the main floor, but
had to retire to the balcony for the classes. Because
of the trouble over this matter, we find the ladies in
the "Sewing Society" on March 2, 1874, suggesting a
"Lecture Room." This, however, was not realized for
several years.
In April, 1875, the pastor, Rev. J. C. Hiden, resigned
to accept the call of the Greenville, S. C, church. This
church then extended a call to Rev. J. B. Taylor of Cul-pepper,
Va., and he accepted.
The big task before the new pastor was the paying
of the large debt on the church. This he set about
to do. On January 2, 1876, George R. French made a
stirring appeal for the payment of the debt and offered
to pay $2,000 of the amount. It was not, however,
until May 8, 1881, a little over five years later, that the
debt was finally paid in full. On that date W. A.
French made an appeal and offered to pay $1,500. Then
followed other subscriptions until $6,100 was pledged.
This was $100 more than was needed. Such an ac-complishment
brought great joy to the members. The
congregation lingered in the church until nearly two
o'clock, crying fori joy and congratulating each other
on the splendid achievement.
Free from debt, with a beautiful building, the church
entered upon a new era. The membership grew rapid-ly
to 367 and the Sunday School to 225.
26
After about eight years of faithful leadership, the
pastor, Dr. J. B. Taylor, resigned in March, 1883 to
take effect on July 15th. And on July 16th Dr. Thomas
H. Pritchard was called from the Broadway Baptist
Church of Louisville, Ky. As he has the distinction
of having had the longest pastorate in the history of
the church so far, it is fitting that we mark the new
period with the beginning of his ministry here.
IV.
From Dr. Pritchard to Dr. Hale, 1883-1908
Dr. Pritchard entered upon his duties as pastor on
November 1, 1883. He at once organized the church
for greater work. The following June, we see the
first recorded report of the president of the Woman's
Missionary Society. On December 11th of the same
year, the church purchased a lot at the corner of Fifth
and Wooster Streets for an "Old Ladies' Home." About
a year and a half later the church purchased the lot
and building adjoining the church for a pastor's home
at a cost of $5,500.00.
The membership rose in 1885 to 410 and three Sun-day
Schools with 405 pupils and 45 officers and teach-ers
were reported. On October 31, 1886, thirty-four
members were lettered out to form the Brooklyn
Church, now Calvary. The next month plans for the
long-discussed Lecture Room were made.
About this time, the Second Baptist Church, which
had been formed about 1870 turned over to the Advent
faith under the leadership of J. P. King and was lost
to the Baptists. Some of the members, however, re-turned
to the First Church.
The Baptist State Convention, which had met with
the church in 1867, met again with the church in 1886.
27
Other items showing the progress of the church at
this time were the purchase of the beautiful chande-liers
and the installation of the pipe organ. At the
conference of April 7, 1890, the organ was reported in
place and all paid for except one hundred dollars. Var-ious
persons, including especially Miss Cannie Chasten
and her father, were thanked for their services in con-nection
with securing the organ. Miss Cannie agreed
to play the organ for six months without pay as a
donation to the organ.
The church was prospering so in every way that it
decided to cease the custom of renting the pews.
However, this prosperity was not to go on without
opposition. Trouble, involving a division in the church,
had been going on for some time. This now came to a
head and on October 9, 1892, Dr. Pritchard resigned
to take effect the first of the year. For nine years he
had served the church in his own great way. He was
an outstanding man among Southern Baptists. Before
coming here he had been president of Wake Forest
College for three years, chairman of the Board of Mis-sions
in the State, Associate Editor of the Recorder,
and had held a number of important pastorates, in
Baltimore, Raleigh, and Louisville, Ky. During his
pastorate 483 members were added to the church.
On January 9, 1893, the church called Rev. W. B.
Oliver, and he entered upon his duties as pastor on
March 16th. During his pastorate several things stand
out in the minutes. One of these was the restatement
of strong resolutions concerning the duty of members
in the matter of supporting the church. All members
were expected to assume a just proportion of the ex-penses
of the church, and failing to do so, were ad-judged
guilty of covetousness and subject! to the dis-cipline
of the church.
28
Another important event was the organization of
the Southside Church. This occurred on August 6,
1894, when thirty-four members were dismissed from
the First Church to form the new organization. At
the same time, the Old Ladies' Home was ordered sold
to finish paying for the Lecture Room of the church.
Another event of importance in Dr. Oliver's pas-torate
occurred in the spring of 1897 when the church
entertained the Southern Baptist Convention. That
session of the Convention is said to be the last one
held on the old free entertainment plan.
Due to trouble and division in the church, Dr. Oliver
resigned as pastor to take effect in May, 1898. Dr.
Calvin S. Blackwell was then called and entered upon
his pastorate here November 1, 1898. He was an ora-tor
of the first rank, and so drew large crowds. He was
popular as an evangelist and was much in demand as
a speaker at various conventions and assemblies.
It was during his ministry that the new and im-proved
art windows were placed in the church. Also
during this time we have the first reference to the
B. Y. P. U. meetings. There had been a long while be-fore
this in the 60's a "Youth's Missionary Society" in
which many of the young people had received inspira-tion
for world service and had shared in the work of
helping native workers through the Foreign Mission
Board. The B. Y. P. U. now took up this work and en-larged
it to a service of training for Christian service.
The weekly prayer service was changed about this
time from Thursday to Wednesday night. Also the
Delgado mission was begun while Dr. Blackwell was
pastor. There were 241 additions to the church in the
four years of his pastorate.
Dr. Blackwell resigned early in 1903, and for about
a year the church was without a pastor. Then came
29
Dr. Fred D. Hale in 1904. He came to this church
from Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Dr. Hale was a great organizer. He organized the
church membership into sections and placed some mem-bers
over each section. Later on he placed a member
in charge of each block where members resided. He
organized the officers of the various departments of
church work into an "Advisory Committee." Each
chairman was expected to make a monthly written re-port
of his work. Under such aggressive leadership
the church had to go forward.
Dr. Hale was a great revivalist. He had a great
many evangelistic meetings in the church. One meet-ing,
with Dr. William Lunsford preaching, resulted in
57 additions ; another, with Dr. W. W. Hamilton preach-ing,
resulted in 125 additions; another by Dr. W. L.
Pickard brought in 145 new members ; another by Dr.
M. F. Ham resulted in 100 additions ; and still another,
with Dr. Blackwell, brought 40 additions to the church.
The church membership grew in leaps and bounds.
Dr. Hale believed strongly in missions. Although
the church had been giving small amounts to Home and
Foreign Missions, Dr. Hale soon had the church giving
a thousand dollars to Foreign Missions and also large
sums to Home Missions.
Dr. Hale had deep convictions as to the evils of strong
drink. He worked and spoke against liquor on every
opportunity. He had others speak against it. Gover-nor
Glenn spoke once or twice in this church on the
subject. It has been said that Dr. Hale did more for
prohibition than any other one man in this section of
the State. It was just before the close of his work
here that the State voted in the prohibition statute.
On January 17, 1906 the church voted to enlarge its
Sunday School room at a cost of $3,500.00. The report
30
to the Association the next year, 1907, showed that
the church then had 804 members and a Sunday School
of 375. The contributions amounted to $10,203.29 for
that year. It is manifest that the church was prosper-ing
in many ways.
Feeling the call of God in the call extended him by
the McKinney Avenue Church of Dallas, Texas, Dr.
Hale resigned as pastor on May 23, 1909. In his resig-nation
he wrote some words which will be accepted by
the citizens of the city: "I would rather live in Wil-mington
than anywhere else on the face of the earth."
The close of this notable pastorate has brought us
just a bit beyond the year that marks the last period
in the history of the church ; but we felt that we ought
to do this in order to close Dr. Hale's work here.
V.
From Dr. Hale to the Present, 1908-1933
Dr. Hale left the church enlarged and well organ-ized
for effective service. In a few months after Dr.
Hale's resignation, Dr. J. H. Foster of Anniston, Ala.,
was called by the church. He began his work here on
October 1, 1909.
With his experience, Dr. Foster made great use of the
organized efforts of his predecessor. He at once sought
to enlarge the work. A City Missionary in the person
of Miss Nettie King, now Mrs. L. F. Gore, was em-ployed.
In January 1912, Rev. M. O. Alexander was
licensed to preach, and in February ordained, and made
assistant to the pastor. Brother Alexander also
preached at Wrightsboro and other mission points of
the church. He remained with the church until June
1, 1913 when he resigned to enter the Seminary. The
31
next month, July 14, 1913, we find Rev. W. Marshall
Craig present in the church conference. He was or-dained
on July 23, 1913.
With such an excellent leader and such capable as-sistants,
the church made great progress along all
lines. There were improvements both material and
spiritual. During the first four years of Dr. Foster's
pastorate there were 787 additions to the church and
mission points of the church, an average of 186 per
year. In the same time the church contributed a total of
$49,995.22 to the work locally and to missions and
benevolence. The $5,000 debt on the church was wiped
out, and granolithic sidewalks placed around the
church, a primary room built in the basement, four
classrooms in the gallery, the vestibule floor tiled, the
roof re-covered with slate, an organ motor installed,
and hymn racks and hymn boards secured, under the
leadership of Dr. Foster. Also during this time, in
1914, the marble baptistry, the gift of Mr. John R.
Hanby and his brother, Dr. Joseph D. Hanby, was
built in.
In addition to all these improvements and accom-plishments
in the local church, the Winter Park Church
was started in 1913, and the house at Delgado, which
later became the Gibson Avenue Church, was erected.
The church prospered greatly under the wise leader-ship
of Dr. Foster. Consequently! it was a source of
great regret when he resigned to take effect on August
1, 1915 to accept the presidency of the Bessie Tift Col-lege
of Forsyth, Ga. Recognizing the hand of God,
however, in the call, the church accepted his resigna-tion.
The church at once made the assistant pastor, W.
Marshall Craig, Acting Pastor. He had already won
the hearts of the members. So amiable, so efficient,
32
and so popular was he that many of the members de-sired
the church to elect him as pastor. He served the
church for one year and then resigned to accept the
call to the First Baptist Church of Kinston, N. C.
On October 1, 1916, Dr. John Jeter Hurt became pas-tor.
He set out to make the church still greater in
every possible way. He brought with him Mr. D. H.
Wilcox as assistant. Others were soon added, includ-ing
the genial Mr. W. B. Muse, as office secretary, and
Miss Rose Goodwin as director of Young People's Work.
Later on, in turn, Miss Effie Rose, Miss Gertrude
Loughlin, and Miss Karen Pool served as workers
among the young people and in directing the music.
Dr. Hurt's pastorate covered the period in which
the United States participated in the World War. The
church had seventy-four members in the various
branches of service in the war. Very few losti their
lives; but many received injuries of various kinds.
Reaping something of the financial boom which fol-lowed
the war, the church entered upon a period of
prosperity. In the Seventy-Five Million Campaign of
Southern Baptists, the church received a quota of
$60,000.00, and actually pledged a total of $76,000.00.
Through the leadership of Dr. Hurt, the church spon-sored
the Seaside Assembly at Wrightsville Beach. The
Harbor Island Auditorium was erected by the Tide
Water Power Company and tendered to the Baptists
for this purpose. Helpful informational and inspira-tional
programs were skillfully arranged by Dr. Hurt
and his able assistants. Large crowds came from
various parts of the State to these meetings. How-ever,
after a few years, the Assembly had to be aban-doned.
By far the largest and most important undertaking
fostered under the leadership of Dr. Hurt was the erec-
33
tion of the Sunday School Annex. On August 8, 1920,
we have this interesting item in the minutes: "On
motion of Brother1 L. F. Gore, duly seconded by Wil-liam
Struthers, Jr., the recommendation of the Build-ing
Committee, that a contract be made between the
church ancj L. H. Vollers for the construction of the
new Sunday School building at an estimated cost of
$71,000.00, was adopted."
As time went on, however, and building materials
went up in price, it was found that it would cost far
more than $71,000.00. In fact, it cost quite a sum
over a hundred thousand dollars. Consequently the
church, in spite of great payments, had to sell $50,-
000.00 worth on bonds. These were authorized by the
church on February 8, 1922, and were soon sold to
eager buyers. The bonds were made to mature in five
years, March 1, 1927.
Other important movements during this pastorate
were the "Once-A-Month Meetings for Men," which
brought many famous speakers to the church, and a
Lyceum course which was fostered by the B. Y. P. U.
of the church.
The church thus moved forward along all lines. The
budget for 1921, for example, called for $13,852.00 for
Current Expenses alone. The salary of the pastor was
fixed at $6,000.00 ; that of the assistant at $1,800.00
;
that of the Office Secretary at $900.00 ; and that of the
B. Y. P. U. Director at $750.00. The budget for 1822
called for a still larger amount for the Current Ex-penses,
$16,295.00.
The new Sunday School Annex was used for the
first time on January the first, 1922. Large crowds
attended and thrilling programs were carried out on
that day. The same enthusiasm characterized the
"Home Coming Week" celebrated a little more than a
34
month later, the week of February 20th. All the liv-ing
former pastors were present. Dr. W. B. Oliver of
Anderson, S. C, preached on Wednesday night, his
subject being, "Christian Progress." On Thursday
night, Dr. Calvin S. Blackwell of Norfolk, Va., spoke
on, "The Four Gospels." And on Friday night, Dr.
J. H. Foster, President of Bessie Tift College, Georgia,
spoke on, "The Foundation of God."
Feeling the need of a Baptist church in the eastern
part of the city, a number of the members of the First
Church, together with members from the other Baptist
churches in the city, met in Trinity Methodist Church
on September 1, 1923 and organized the Temple Bap-tist
Church. To this new organization over a hundred
of the members of the First Church went, many of
them being active workers in the First Church.
About a month later, October 7, 1923, Dr. Hurt re-signed
as pastor to accept the call extended him by the
First Baptist Church of Jackson, Tennessee. He took
with him his efficient Office Secretary, Mr. W. B. Muse
;
but he left with the church his amiable and experienced
Assistant, Mr. D. H. Wilcox.
The church then asked Brother Wilcox to assume
charge as Acting Pastor, and called for his ordination.
He gave himself wholeheartedly to his task. The
church at that time was several thousand dollars in
debt above its bonded indebtedness of fifty thousand
dollars. Brother Wilcox urged the members to do their
best. In one special offering he raised some five thou-sand
dollars. In the nine months while he served the
church as Acting Pastor he reduced the debt in notes
and current bills considerably.
It was during this time, in June 1924, that the State
B. Y. P. U. Convention met in this church. The meet-
35
ing was largely attended and greatly enjoyed. Brother
Wilcox proved himself an able leader in every way.
On July 6, 1924, Rev. D. H. Wilcox resigned the work
here in order to accept the position of Assistant Pastor
of the First Baptist Church of Winston-Salem, N. C.
The church at once passed resolutions expressing their
high esteem for Brother Wilcox and his work. He
closed his ministry on September 1, 1924, the date on
which the present pastorate began.
The present pastorate, now almost nine years in
length, has been marked by a few important events.
One of these was the inauguration of the Quarterly
Thank Offerings in 1925. Another was the adoption,
also in 1925, of the "Double Unified Budget," which
brings all contributions and expenditures of the church
through one channel, and makes all giving an act of
worship.
Another, and perhaps the most outstanding event,
was the payment of the entire indebtedness of the
church, which amounted to considerably more than
$50,000.00 in 1924, when the present pastorate began.
By March 1927, when the bonds fell due, the church
had paid the notes and other debts and $23,000.00 on
the bonds. At that time the church prepared and sold
$27,000.00 of new bonds, $9,000.00 to mature each year
for three years. These bonds were paid for each year.
Consequently on April 1, 1930 the church was free
from debt. The church continues to rejoice that the
debt was paid,, and paid when it was ; for since that
time all have felt the pinch of the depression more and
more.
One other event for this period should be mentioned,
the purchase of a Pastor's Home in October, 1930. At
that time, the church purchased from Mr. W. J. Craig,
retiring General Passenger Agent of the A. C. L. Rail-
36
road, his house and lot at 117 South Fourth Street for
$13,000.00. Of this amount Mr. D. H. Penton paid one.
tenth at the time of the purchase, and the church has
since reduced the debt to $7,800.
The pastor has constantly emphasized spirituality
in living, stewardship in giving, and world-wide serv-ice.
As a result of this emphasis the church has come
to support either through its budget, or through in-dividuals
and groups in the church several foreign
workers. The contributions have gradually risen until
for 1932 the church stood second in the State in giv-ing
to the Co-operative Program although only eigh-teenth
in size of membership.
In the eight and two-third years of this pastorate
the church has received into its membership almost one
thousand members and has contributed to all causes
approximately three hundred thousand dollars. For
such blessings of service we ought to be profoundly
thankful to God.
The spirit of co-operation and harmony has been
manifest through all these years. No pastor could ask
for more harmony or unity than the present pastor has
been privileged to have.
As helpers in the work, the pastor has had the fol-lowing:
Mr. S. B. Tabb, as Financial Secretary, from
September 1, 1924 to March 1st, 1925. From that time
to the present Mrs. Mary E. Hanby has been both
Financial and Office Secretary, and has rendered effi-cient
and invaluable service to the church. As Educa-tional
Directors, first came Miss Leila J. Grimes of
White Plains, Georgia, who served most acceptably in
1925-1926. She was followed by the student-minded
and efficient, Rev. Ernest C. Kolb, of Clemson College,
S. C. He served for one year, 1926-1927, and resigned
to pursue further studies in Duke University. Then
37
came Rev. J, A. Neilson from Bluefield, West Virginia,
H& served 'Ma great way from October 1927 to Jan-uary
1, 1929. Since that time the church has had no
other assistants.
In such a brief sketch many things of importance
have had to bej omitted. It has not been possible to
give many resolutions, which would have been of inter-est,
or to give any definite history of the various de-partments
of the church's work. Practically nothing
has been written about the music of the church, and
even the fine work of the deacons could not be followed
in a definite way. It would require a large volume to
give the history of this church in detail.
While we cannot give a definite connected sketch of
the Sunday School, we ought at least to give a list of
the superintendents. The church has had a Sunday
School for at least a century. Unfortunately we do
not have a history of this important part of the
church's life. We are not able to trace even the super-intendents
from the first. The one first mentioned in
the minutes was A. P. Repiton, who was later a pastor.
Later on we find such honorable names as those of
B. F. Mitchell, E. W. Manning, and W. A. French.
Since 1885, the following have served: Joseph H.
Mitchell (1885-1889), Jacob S. Allen (1889-1890), P. B.
Manning (1890-1891), S. G. Hall (1891-1892), C. C
Brown (1892-1894), James Calder (1894-?), L. H. Bat-tle
(1898-1899), George E. Leftwich (1899-1904; 1908-
1909; 1910-1912), John R. Hanby (1904-1906), B. T.
Hopkins (1906-1908), M. E. Graham (1909-1910), F. T.
Allen (1912-1915; 1924-1925), D. H. Howes (1915-
1917), R. F. Coleman (1918), D. H. Wilcox (1919-1923),
Edwin B. Josey (1925-1926), E. C. Kolb (1926-1927),
J. C. King (1927-1930), L. C. Robertson, Jr., (1930 to
present). These men, with their associates, the offi-cers
and teachers, have done a marvelous work for the
Master.
38
Thus we come to the close of the first one hundred
and twenty-five years of this church's service to God
and to humanity. Its defects have been apparent
through the years. But God has blessed and used the
church in a great way. Its workers and members have
gone out into many sections of the nation. Through
its gifts, it has touched the uttermost parts of the world,
Its worth to the moral and spiritual life of the city, to
the State, and to the nation, cannot be estimated in
human language.
Our prayer is that during all the years to come the
church may continue to grow in favor with God and
man, and have continued prosperity in things spiritual,
and, as far as is best for it, in things material.
THE PASTORS OF THE CHURCH
J. C. Grigg (1833-1834)
A. W. Chambliss (1835-1836)
A. P. Repiton (1839 and 1843-1844)
A. J. Battle (1842-1843)
James McDaniel (1844-1851)
W. H. Jordan (1852-1855)
J. L. Prichard (1856-1862)
W. M. Young (1864-1867)
J. C. Hiden (1868-1875)
J. B. Taylor (1875-1883)
T. H. Pritchard (1883-1892)
W. B. Oliver (1893-1898)
C. S. Blackwell (1898-1903)
Fred D. Hale (1904-1909)
J. H. Foster (1909-1915)
W. M. Craig (Acting, 1915-1916)
John J. Hurt (1916-1923)
D. H. Wilcox (Acting, 1923-1924)
J. M. Kester (1924—)
39
CHURCH OFFICERS, 1933
Clerk, J. S. Lane; Assistant Clerk, B. V. Sunofsky
Treasurer, Current Expenses, F. T. Allen
Treasurer, Missions, Mrs. J. D. VANN
Financial Secretary, Mrs. Mary E. Hanby
Superintendent of Sunday School, L. C. ROBERTSON, Jr.
Assistant Superintendent, James F. Warwick
Director Young People's Work, J. E. JOHNSON
President, Woman's Missionary Society, Mrs. A. M. ALDERMAN
DEACONS
J. D. Vann, Chairman, S. B. Tabb, Secretary
F. T. Allen L. F. Gore
Dr. A. M. Baldwin H. A. Hanby
J. L. Baldwin J. R. Hanby
R. H. Brady E. B. Josey
D. L. Dobson D. C. Marshall
Ray Funderburk J. A. Orrell
D. H. Penton
W. C. Peterson
L. C. Robertson, Jr.
Dr. W. T. Smith
J. F. Warwick
North Carolina w~ —"-]J
- Raleigh, N. U
GC 286.175627 K42h
Kester, John Marcus, 1887-1936.
Historical sketch of the First Baptist C
3 3091 00112 6259
DATE DUE
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-North Carolina State Library
* • * * Raleigh, N. C.
HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF THE
FIRST
APTIST CHURCH
WILMINGTON, N. C.
1808—1933
BY
J. MARCUS KESTER, Pastor
125TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
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Celebration
125th Anniversary
April 12, 13, 1933
Wednesday, April 12, 7:45 P. M.
Organ selection Mrs. T. J. Head, Organist
Hymn: "Faith of Our Fathers" Congregation
Invocation The Pastor
Reading of Psalm 84 The Pastor
Chorus: "Glory Be to God on High" By Mozart
By Voices from Choirs of the City
Reading of the "Historical Sketch of Church"
Prayer. Rev. A. J. Barton, D. D.
Doxology and Benediction.
Thursday, April 13, 7:45 P. M.
Organ selection Mrs. T. J. Head, Organist
Anthem: "Send Out Thy Light" Quartet
Invocation Rev. L. R. O'Brian
Hymn: "I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord" Congregation
Reading the Anniversary Greetings.
Anthem: "As It Began to Dawn" By Quartet
Greetings from other churches of the city.
Hymn: "Blest Be the Tie That Binds" Congregation
Benediction Rev. Ernest C. Kolb, Windsor, N. C.
Fellowship Social in the Social Hall of Church.
Dr. W. T. Smith,
Mr. J. L. Baldwin,
Mrs. A. M. Alderman,
Dr. J. D. Freeman,
Mrs. E. P. Brock,
Mrs T. J. Head,
Program Committee.
TO THE
Deacons, Members, Friends
of THE
First Baptist Church
ANNIVERSARY GREETINGS
Read at the Celebration
From Rev. A. D. P. Gilmour, D. D., Pastor First Presby-terian
Church, City
My Dear Dr. Kester:
In behalf of my congregation and myself, personally,
I just wish to send you these few lines of greetings
and congratulations on the occasion of the celebration
of the 125th anniversary of the organization of your
church.
It is a great thing to have stood in a community for
a century and a quarter for the highest things of the
spirit and it is simply impossible to calculate, accord-ing
to any human and earthly standards, the value of
your service to Wilmington throughout this long period
of time, when many generations have come and gone.
May the Lord bless you and keep you,
May the Lord lift up His countenance unto you
and be gracious unto you,
May the Lord cause His face to shine upon you
and give you peace, both now and in the life
everlasting.
Most cordially,
From Dr. W. B. Oliver, Louisville, Ky., Pastor, 1893-
1898, received too late to be read at the
Celebration.
Dear Brethren:
Permit a voice out of the past to bear you a word of
greeting and congratulation. Probably the oldest ex-pastor
in years,—certainly so in terms of service,—
I
join in the acclaim and good wishes of this anniversary
occasion with wholeheartedness.
Perhaps no other, of all those who have been privil-eged
to serve the old First Church, has been so uniquely
connected with its history. I was present,—a small
lad,—when the church was dedicated, and well remem-ber
how proudly—and justly—the brethren spoke of it
as the "prettiest and most churchly'' house of worship
south of Baltimore.
It was during my pastorate that the first Sunday
School Annex was completed and put into use. I was
among those who joined with Pastor Hurt in the cele-bration
when the new Sunday School building was com-pleted.
So,—for more than 60 years I have seen the
growth of your magnificent plant.
During my pastorate, which began forty years ago
—
(March, 1893)—a mission was started which devel-oped
into the Southside Church.
And as your pastor I welcomed the Southern Bap-tist
Convention to our city by the sea, and in this next
to the last free entertainment of that great body, I
witnessed the most striking example of Christian unity
and community spirit that I ever saw or knew of.
Everybody—irrespective of creed, took part in it.
And so, I know the kind of folk you are, and while
many of those who so patiently and helpfully labored
with me have entered upon their reward, and a new
generation fills their place, I believe that better days
of larger and richer service are for the church—not
aged, but just come to maturity.
May God's richest blessings abide upon you all and
your pastor, and may each year make you a greater
factor in Kingdom work.
Your Brother in Christ,
W. B. OLIVER.
From Rev. J. H. Foster, D. D., Pastor First Baptist
Church, Ashland, Va., Pastor 1909-1915
"Unto the Church of God,
Which is at Wilmington.
"To them that are sanctified in Christ, Jesus, called
to be saints; grace be unto you and peace from God
our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank
my God always on your behalf for the grace of God
which is given you by Jesus Christ that in everything
ye are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowl-edge,
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in
you."
I am persuaded that there is no church in the South-land
to which this commendation of Paul may be more
appropriately applied than to the old First Church at
Wilmington.
Ever in my memory remains the record of your loy-alty,
sacrificial service and zeal for our Father's House.
Added to the ties that were formed while we were
with you, the fact that we have left with you part of
our very selves has intensified our interest in all the
progress the Church is making.
May the blessing of God rest upon pastor and people
and may you continue to grow in favor with God and
man.
Cordially and fraternally,
From Rev. M. 0. Alexander, Pastor First Baptist
Church, Thomasville, N. C, Assistant Pastor
1911-1913
Dear Dr. Kester:
I am greatly honored by being remembered in con-nection
with the history of the First Baptist Church
of Wilmington. I am justly proud of my relationship
with the church through a period of more than eight
years. I was not only the first assistant pastor of First
Church, Wilmington, but first to serve in that capacity
among Baptist churches in North Carolina, the First
Church took the lead in giving the pastor help. Miss
Nettie King (now Mrs. Gore) was employed by the
church at the time, this was during 1911-13. I wish
to extend best wishes and hearty congratulations upon
the one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of this
church that has served so well and written its name
permanently not only in Baptist history, but also in
the history of North Carolina. "Many shall rise up to
call her blessed." It was this church that did so much
to hearten and encourage me. Some of the most help-ful
and inspiring experiences of my life are associated
with this church. The W. M. U. of the First Church,
sent me to the Seminary at Louisville in 1913. It was
from this church I was appointed Chaplain in U. S.
Navy in 1915. The church kept in touch with me
throughout the World War. The most loyal friends I
have known were members of this church, some of them
still there, many have passed on. I bless God and the
church for these good friends. I was ordained in
First Church, Wilmington, in 1913, just twenty years
ago, Dr. J. H. Foster, Rev. J. A. Sullivan and Rev.
W. G. Hall were on the council of ordination as were
the Deacons of the church.
While I was serving as assistant to Dr. Foster, I or-ganized
the church at Winter Park Garden and was its
first pastor. I organized the church at Delgado (now
Gibson Avenue, I believe) and Mr. L. W. Moore was
Superintendent of the Sunday School. He really kept
that work going in its early years, giving liberally of
his time and money to it. I preached at Castle Hayne
and Wrightsboro churches during this period also and
established a mission at Farmers, some miles from
Wilmington.
I would like to mention individuals, how happily I
remember them, but the list would be long and for the
moment I might possibly overlook some of the best
loved. I just send sincere love to all who are there and
especially to those who were associated with me in
the other days.
I want to express my love for the church and my
deep gratitude for her great help to me personally.
May she live and serve throughout all the years, until
His Kingdom comes.
My love abides and my prayers continue for the
Great Old Church and her beloved and honored pastor.
Cordially,
Isaiah 50:7—"For the Lord God will keep me: there-fore
shall I not be confounded : therefore have I set my
face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be
ashamed."
From Rev. W. Marshall Craig, D. D., Pastor Gaston
Avenue Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, Assistant
Pastor 1913-1915, Acting Pastor 1915-1916
My very dear Friends:
It gives me unspeakable joy to avail myself of this
opportunity to send a message of personal greetings,
as you come to this glad occasion, the 125th anniver-sary
of your noble and historic church.
As you meet today, I greet you with deep gratitude
to God for permitting me to begin my humble minis-terial
labors in your midst. Many of you, perhaps,
will recall that I had the honor of being ordained in
your great church, and spent the first three years of
my ministry in service with you. It is quite natural,
then, that your church should have a place of peculiar
affection in my heart. The old First Church, Wil-mington,
is dearer to me than words can express. I
cherish the memory of those years, which were among
the happiest of my life. I shall never forget your every
kindness, beautiful expressions of friendship, whole-hearted
co-operation and earnest words of encourage-ment
to the young preacher, who was just starting out
in the ministry. Although many years have passed
since I served as assistant to my good friend, Dr. J. H.
Foster, and many changes have taken place, I fre-quently
find myself living over again in fondest mem-ory
many of the delightful experiences of these blessed
years. It is difficult, I confess, to resist the almost
overwhelming temptation to write in detail of those
memorable experiences and friendships, but with your
crowded program for the day I must not burden you
with a long message. However, it is in my heart to
say, "I thank my God upon every remembrance of
you."
All through the years I have followed the progress
of your work with unusual interest. From my first
day of Gospel fellowship with you, in 1913, unto this
very hour, I have been deeply impressed with your
loyalty to Christ, your generous response to every
Kingdom appeal, your wonderful and passionate mis-sionary
spirit, and your sincere desire to know and do
the will of our heavenly Father. Not once has the old
church wavered, but with abiding faith in our Lord
and ever-increasing devotion to Him, you have pressed
forward to loftier heights of service and achievement
in His name. On this 125th anniversary occasion, I
extend heartiest congratulations upon such a chal-lenging
record as your church has made through its
long and illustrious history. Then too, I rejoice with
you and your beloved and consecrated pastor, as you
review the marvelous progress during the several years
of your labors together. The signal success of the
church, under the able leadership of that noble man
of God, Dr. Kester, has gladdened my heart. I wish
for you, dear friends, an even larger measure of
heaven's blessings, as the years come and go. It gives
me much pleasure, I assure you, to send this word of
greeting, and to express the hope that you will have a
glorious anniversary occasion.
With love to all the church family and other friends
in the City by the Sea, and wishing for each of you in-creasing
happiness and success in the service of Christ,
I remain,
Gratefully and affectionately yours,
10
From Rev. John Jeter Hurt, D. D., President Union
University, Jackson, Tenn., Pastor 1915-1923
My brethren Beloved:
I salute you in the Lord on the occasion of your
125th anniversary. The years I spent in your fellow-ship
are enshrined evermore within the secret cham-bers
of my heart. The ties of friendship formed dur-ing
those blessed years will remain unbroken thru all
the tides of time and eternity.
You and I rejoice greatly in the achievements of
the dear Old Church within our generation. Such ac-complishments
have been made possible by reason of
the fact that the fathers chose their locations wisely
and laid the foundations deep and strong. We entered
into a blessed heritage and received from their hands
the commitment of a task upon which they, themselves,
had wrought heroically and effectively. They saw with
prophetic eyes a city and an opportunity for service
which was far beyond the reach of natural vision. God,
Himself, gave to them a vision which was possible only
to the eyes of faith. We who come after them must
learn from their example. We must so press the bat-tle,
thru experiences of depression as well as of exulta-tion,
so that those who come after us may rejoice in
the fact that we too did our best in our days of oppor-tunity.
Time and distance have separated you and me. But
I rejoice greatly to know that you carry on with forti-tude
and faith. He who leads you today is God's
anointed one and I pray earnestly that pastor and peo-ple
may work together in the abiding consciousness
that the Head of the Church smiles continuously upon
your work with approval.
With affectionate regards to all whom I know and
fervent good wishes to everyone, I am
Yours earnestly,
11
From Rev. D. H. Wilcox, Assistant Pastor First Bap-tist
Church of Winston-Salem, N. C, Assistant
Pastor 1916-1923, Acting Pastor 1923-1924
My dearly Beloved:
On this your One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Anni-versary
I send you my warm and hearty greetings,
and pray God that He may give you a double portion
of His Holy Spirit to guide you in the paths erf His
righteousness as you walk through the dark shadows
of the difficult times through which we are now pass-ing.
I rejoice with exceeding joy when I think of the
years spent with you in the service of our Master. I
think of these years of fellowship and service together
as the happiest years of my life. I express my grati-tude
to you in the words of the poet, for his words
seem to express my feeling perfectly as I think of
you today.
"For sunlit hours and visions clear,
For all remembered faces dear,
For comrades of a single day,
Who sent us stronger on our way,
For friends who shared the year's long road,
And bore with us the common load,
For hours that levied heavy tolls,
But brought us nearer to our goals,
For insights won through toil and tears,
We thank the Keeper of our years."
May your glorious past be a stimulus to urge you
on in your efforts to keep the home fires burning, and
to spread the gospel of the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords to earth's remotest bounds.
Affectionately yours in Christ Jesus,
12
HISTORICAL SKETCH
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
WILMINGTON, N. C.
By
J. MARCUS KESTER, Pastor
In writing the history of a great human-divine in-stitution
such as a church one wishes it were possible
to convey something of the emotions and sentiments
that rightfully belong to it. Anxieties, aspirations,
heartaches, joys and triumphs, all are involved in the
making of a church. But, alas, these cannot be ade-quately
expressed in ink.
We would approach the history of this church with
deep reverence. The story is full of the deep breath-ings
of those who were "the salt of the earth." They
lived and built for God in a great way. We who are
now enjoying the fruits of their labor can never know
all that went into the making of the church which has
come down to us.
During its history the church has sent forth, either
licensed or ordained, no less than sixteen ministers.
The following were licensed and perhaps ordained:
W. F. Jones, E. L. Hawkins, A. W. Stamford, J. F.
Westcott, J. W. Denmark. The following were or-dained
here: A. J. Battle, G. W. Newell, G. M. L.
Finch, Edward Eagles (colored), T. J. Wescott, E. S.
Alderman, J. R. Marshall, Eugene G. Mintz, M. 0. Alex-ander,
W. Marshall Craig, and D. H. Wilcox. Some of
these are now in the prime of life and doing a great
work for the Lord.
13
Not only has the church sent forth a large group of
ministers, it has fostered and started a number of im-portant
churches: Calvary, Southside, Winter Park,
Gibson Avenue, Wrightsville Sound, Castle Hayne, and
Farmers, the last three are not now in existence. And,
in addition to these, although it did not organize, this
church furnished a large number of members for the
formation of the Wrightsboro and Temple churches.
The combined membership of the First and all these
other churches is now beyond four thousand.
During its life, the church has exerted an influence in
three Associations as well as in the State and Southern
Baptist Conventions. The church was first received in-to
the Cape Fear Association. When that Association
was divided in 1826, the Wilmington Church fell into
the new Association, then called the Goshen, later the
Union, and still later the Eastern. Since 1900 the
church has been an active member of the Wilmington
Association.
For the main part of the history we are indebted to
a long list of faithful clerks. One of these, J. W. Col-lins,
served three periods covering sixteen years. Two
others—William Larkins and William B. Muse—served
fourteen years each, and our recent clerk, J. L. Bald-win,
served nine years. Others serving from one to
five years were George R. French, the first clerk on
our records, Isham Peterson, J. I. Bryan, D. Cashwell,
C. W. and W. P. Oldham, J. J. Clemmons, George E.
Leftwich, F. L. Huggins, E. S. Lathrop, F. T. Allen.
Our present clerk is J. Sheppard Lane.
In order to give the history in as practical a way as
possible, we are dividing it into periods of twenty-five
years each.
14
I.
From First to Second Organization, 1808-1833
According to the authentic records of the Cape Fear
Association, the church was organized sometime prev-ious
to October 1, 1808. On that date the Association
meeting in Moore's Creek Church has this notation:
"Received a newly constituted church in fellowship
from Wilmington by letter and delegates." The dele-gates
were John Larkins and Peter Smyth, a licensed
preacher. The church reported twenty members and
contributed to the work of the Association ten shil-lings,
English money.
The following year, 1809, Simon Sellars and Reuben
Everitt were the delegates. They reported twenty-four
members and gave ten shillings. There is no rec-ord
for 1810. In 1811, Reuben Everitt and P. Smyth
were the delegates and they reported twenty members
and gave $1.50 to the work. The records of the Cape
Fear Association show that the church was represented
almost every year until 1826 when the Association
was divided and the Wilmington church became a mem-ber
of the new Association. The church was growing
from year to year. In 1826 the report showed forty-five
members.
Unfortunately we have no records in the church it-self
for this period. We know nothing as to its build-ings,
struggles, revivals, etc. Neither do we know defin-itely
as to its pastors except as reflected in the min-utes
of the Cape Fear Association. Since Rev.
Jonathan Bryan, an ordained minister, was a delegate
to the Association two years in succession, 1824 and
1825, it may be inferred that he was the pastor.
Evidently the church had a set-back after it became
a member of the new Association in 1827; for we do
not have a report for that year or the next, and in 1829
15
the report showed only thirty-four members, a loss of
eleven members since 1826. The delegates in 1829
were J. King and Morris Parker. The church grew
rather rapidly for the next few years, reporting fifty-three
members in 1831, sixty-three in 1832, and eighty
nine in 1833.
The delegates to the Goshen Association in 1833 were
Elder J. C. Grigg, the pastor, and Dennis Collins and
H. Costin. The pastor also represented the church at
the meeting of the Baptist State Convention that year.
He was made chairman of the committee on Sabbath
Schools and made a splendid report. Most likely the
church had a Sunday school at that time. The church
sent ten dollars to the State Convention to be used for
Home and Foreign Missions and Education.
This brings us into the year of the re-organization
of the church and so into the second period of its his-tory
:
II.
From Second Organization to New Building, 1833-1858
For some reason which we do not know, the church
organized itself anew on April 13, 1833. Until recently
when the Cape Fear Association minutes showed dif-ferently
this date was taken as the time of the found-ing
of the church. We have a record of this new or-ganization.
It reads : "We whose names are hereunto
subscribeB being assembled in the Baptist Meeting
House in the Town of Wilmington, N. C. . . . do hereby
on this the thirteenth of April in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three mosi:
solemnly agree among ourselves to become a regular
independent constituted Church of our Lord and Sav-iour
Jesus Christ." The fact that a Baptist Meeting
House already existed shows that a church had prev-
16
iously existed. Just why it was thought necessary
to reorganize we do not know. Our guess is that there
was some trouble over missions, Sunday School work,
or the work of the Baptist State Convention which had
just been in existence three years. According to Dr.
G. W. Paschal, author of the "History of North Caro-lina
Baptists," many churches about this time did re-organize
themselves.
The names of the charter members of the new or-ganization
and also the minutes of the church for three
years are torn from the minute book. From the rec-ords
of the Baptist State Convention we learn that
Rev. A. W. Chambliss, the pastor, and Rev. W. J.
Findlay, an agent of the State Convention in this sec-tion,
represented the church in the Convention in 1835.
The pastor was made a member of the committee on
periodicals and was chairman of the committee on tem-perance.
The church sent ten dollars to the work of
missions and education and Rev. Mr. Findlay made a
personal contribution of sixteen dollars to the same
causes.
The first church conference record is that which
was held on December 31, 1836. At that time a "Sister
Ward" was received from the Baptist Church of Oliver
Street, New York, and a committee consisting of Breth-ren
French, Costin, Sholar, Bryan, Thally, and Hewlett,
was appointed "to ascertain the possible cost of re-pairing
the meeting house."
The next conference reported was held two months
later, February 4, 1837. A Rev. Mr. Hawby acted as
moderator and Rev. James McDaniel of Fayetteville
addressed the meeting. The committee appointed at
the December conference was asked to see whether or
not a minister might be secured.
It was over a year until the next conference reported,
May 28, 1838. Then Rev. William Culpepper acted as
17 ^ •
North Carolina State Library
- Raleigh, N. C.
chairman and Rev. James McDaniel led in prayer. At
this conference a letter of dismission was granted a
colored member, named Hannah, to unite with a church
in Alabama.
The first record of a regular pastor is found in min-utes
for April 5, 1839. It reads: "Resolved that
Brother A. P. Repiton be, and continue as pastor of this
church as long as the pastor and members shall agree."
They did not agree very long. At the end of the year
the pastor resigned because of a disagreement with
Brother French. However, a few years later, he was
made pastor again, as we shall see.
The pastor in 1842 and a part of 1843 was Rev. A. J.
Battle. It was during his pastorate that the church
experienced a great spiritual awakening. A revival,
which began on March 2nd, lasted until the summer.
About one hundred persons united with the church.
Not only were the white people stirred, but great num-bers
of Negroes were converted. At the July confer-ence
seventeen Negroes presented themselves for mem-bership
; but they were then received only as "mourn-ers."
Later on many of them were received into the
church.
The Rev. A. P. Repiton was again made pastor in
1843 and served for about a year. In his closing mes-sage
to the church he made some remarks which were
taken to mean that he thought he had been treated
unjustly by the church, or some members of it. These
remarks stirred the church deeply and brought on a
terrible church row. At one conference the members
became so enraged that a number arose and went nois-ily
out of the room. Those who remained felt that for
such boisterous conduct those who had gone out should
be expelled from membership and proceeded to do so.
Some, however, came back in and apologized and were
kept in the membership. Others were so broken up
18
over the matter that they organized another church,
known as the Orange Street Baptist Church some-where
about Sixth and Orange Street, with Repiton as
pastor. This church existed some fifteen years. The
church house, I understand, was burned during the
Civil War, and the church disbanded. Many of the
members returned to the Front Street Church, as this
church was then called. The pastor, A. P. Repiton, was
also invited to supply the Front Street Church during
the absence of the pastor due to illness.
So much for the pastorate of A. P. Repiton. On
October 1, 1844, Rev. James McDaniel became the pas-tor
1 of the church. McDaniel was a strong man and a
leader among the Baptists of his day. He was one of
the founders of the Baptist State Convention and for
nineteen years was its president. He was at his prime
during his pastorate here and led the church forward
in many ways. It was during his pastorate that
the Southern Baptist Convention was organized, and
he and Brother Havens were sent as messengers to the
organization meeting in 1845.
From the records it appears that from January
1845 on the colored members held their meetings sepa-rately
from the white members; at least they held
their conference meetings at a different time. On Jan-uary
2, 1845, the use of the church building was granted
to Brother A. J. Battle "for the purpose of preaching
to the colored people on Sabbath afternoons and with
a view of collecting an African congregation." On May
26, 1845, two colored deacons, Harry Burgwin and
Marion Walker, were chosen for the colored portion of
the church.
Brother James McDaniel closed his pastorate with
the church in 1851. Rev. W. H. Jordan was then called
and began his work early in 1852. Rev. Mr. Jordan
was a native of Bertie County, this State. He was edu-
19
cated at the University, and for several years was the
Corresponding Secretary of the Baptist State Conven-tion.
He was a man with a strong evangelistic appeal.
During all these years the church held a high stand-ard
for its members. It expected them to livq right
and to be active in their support of the church. ! On
one occasion, September 24, 1855, we read this: "Re-solved
that the members of the church be cited to
attend here next Sabbath morning to signify their de-sire
or intention to continue their membership, and
that on failing to do so either present, or represented
by letter or proxy, their names to be erased from the
church membership." All members were expected to
attend the conferences, and failing to do so, or to give
a reasonable excuse, were expelled from the church.
Rev. W. H. Jordan closed his work as pastor of the
church in September, 1855. In February of the fol-lowing
year, 1856, the notable pastorate of Rev. John
Lamb Prichard began. He was called from Lynchburg,
Va., and in the call it was stipulated that a new and
more commodious house of worship would be erected.
So he at once set himself to that task. At a confer-ence
held on September 22, 1856, a committee, consist-ing
of the pastor and Brethren Ellis, French, Mitchell,
Parker, Larkins, and Hallet, was appointed to consider
the matter of building a new church house.
At a conference held the next Spring, April 20, 1857,
a vote was taken on the location of the new building.
Of those voting, twenty-one voted for a new location,
and three voted to build on the location of the church
at that time, namely, corner of Front and Ann Streets.
It was not until January 19, 1858, that the location was
agreed upon. At that time George R. French recom-mended
the purchase of a lot running 120 feet on Mar-ket
Street and 165 feet on Fifth Street, at a cost of
20
$4,000.00. At the May conference the lot was pur-chased
from John J. Connally for $4,500.00, he giving
$500.00 of the amount.
The plans for the new building and the purchase of
the lot may well mark the beginning of the third period
in the history of the church.
III.
From New Building to Dr. Pritchard, 18580.883
At a conference, November 29, 1858, a building com-mittee
was appointed, and in December a sub-com-mittee
of the building committee was asked to visit
other outstanding churches to secure suggestions and
information about church buildings. The sub-commit-tee,
consisting of the pastor, Dr. J. L. Prichard, and
George R. French, visited Richmond, Washington, Bal-timore,
and other places. On April 18, 1859, the build-ing
committee recommended that a Mr. Sloan of Phila-delphia
be the architect and that the church be modeled
after the Fredericksburg church. The model finally
decided upon was Early English Gothic with two tow-ers,
a high tower and a lower one.
The cost of such a large building was necessarily
great, and the membership was small, only two hun-dred
and forty-two members, and a number of these
were slaves and others poor. However, the church
courageously faced its task. On February 14, 1859,
over ten thousand dollars were subscribed toward the
building. In April the pastor was asked to visit other
churches and conventions with a view of securing other
funds for the building. As a result of one tour the
pastor reported $848.37 in cash and $422.00 in pledges.
By November 9, 1860, $19,828.00 had been subscribed
21
toward the new project and $11,028.00 had been al-ready
collected and disbursed. We have no definite
figures as to the total cost of the building; but, judg-ing
by the amounts mentioned from time to time, and
by the debt on the church some years after the building
was completed, it must have cost fifty or sixty thou-sand
dollars, and perhaps more.
The building was started in a great way. Everything
looked bright. Then came the terrible Civil War of
1861-1865. And, in spite of all the heroic band could
do it was impossible to complete the structure. In
"The Memoirs of Dr. J. L. Prichard", we are told how
he eagerly watched the erection of the1 building. On
one day he would mention in his diary that a certain
side was up, and on another day another wall, or win-dow.
He was interested in every brick that went into
the edifice.
One thing which greatly helped in the erection of
the church was a spiritual revival which swept the
town in 1858. This notation is made in the Memoirs
of Dr. Prichard: "Early in the spring of 1858, Wil-mington
was visited with the most remarkable relig-ious
awakening known in the city." Sunrise prayer
meetings were held each morning for some two months.
The First, or Front Street Baptist Church as it was
then called, received about a hundred members. Other
churches also received many.
The religious revival not only prepared for the new
building and the sacrifice involved in such a task, it
also prepared the city for the worst scourge it has ever
experienced, the yellow fever epidemic of 1862. The
packet-boat, "Kate", brought the yellow fever to the
city in July. For awhile it was scarcely noticed. But
in September its deadly work began, and rapidly grew
worse. The first week in October 267 cases and 32
22
deaths were reported ; the next week, 395 cases and 40
deaths; the following week, 431 cases and 102 deaths;
and the next week, 194 cases and 111 deaths. By No-vember
the epidemic was over; but large groups of
people had left the city and everything was broken up.
Thirty-seven per cent of the cases resulted in death.
During all this awful period Dr. J. L. Prichard, the
pastor of this church, along with one or two other
pastors, stuck to his post of duty. Mrs. Prichard and
the children had gone to Richmond in August for a
visit, and they were advised by Dr. Prichard not to
return during the epidemic. Dr. Prichard had his sis-ter
with him during the time. When she was stricken
with the fever he remained with her as much as pos-sible
in addition to visiting as many others of the sick
as he could. About the middle of October Dr. Prich-ard
himself was stricken with the deadly malady. He
rallied for a time, but could not overcome, and so passed
to his reward on November 13, 1862. He was buried
in Oakdale, the cemetery of the city he had served so
faithfully for six years.
Dr. Prichard is the only pastor who has died while
pastor of this church. In view of what has been writ-ten
about him, it is needless to say that the church
greatly loved Dr. Prichard. They had such confidence
in him that soon after his coming to the church, the
church ceased its old custom of calling a pastor year
by year. After his death, the church passed resolu-tions
which speak of their high esteem for him. One
paragraph of the resolutions especially reveals his serv-ice
during the yellow fever epidemic, and this we quote
:
"Although frequently urged to leave, his universal re-ply
was 'The poor need my assistance and I must re-main
and do what I can'. Thus he lived for the good
of mankind and when danger threatened he faltered
23
not, but, like a true soldier of the-cross, he stood firmly
and died at his post, died a martyr in the cause of
humanity."
Due to the impoverished conditions brought on by
the war, and the sad conditions which followed the
yellow fever peril, the church could not do much. The
loss of their noble leader left them in a sad plight.
However, they rallied as best they could and tried to
secure another pastor. Their first efforts were unsuc-cessful.
It was not until the spring of 1864 that they
secured Rev. W. M. Young, a native of Scotland, at
that time pastor of a church in Williamsburg, Va.
The church having left its old building on Front
Street and the new structure not completed had to
hold its meetings in the Town Hall. The war-time
conditions are reflected in the records of this period
in several ways. The pastor is away visiting the sol-diers.
Rev. A. Paul Repiton, pastor of the Orange
Street Church, is referred to as chaplain. Even the
salary of the pastor reflects the war. He was to re-ceive
in 1864 six thousand dollars, and for; 1865, his
salary was placed at ten thousand dollars, the highest
salary ever paid by the church. But, alas, in 1866, he
only received fifteen hundred dollars!
One other item during this time will be of peculiar
interest. At the conference held November 7, 1864, a
request was received from the colored members asking
that they be allowed to hold their worship services
among themselves. The request was approved and
we hear no more of the colored members in the church,
except that on May 26, 1867, Edward Eagles, a colored
preacher was ordained by the church. We suppose that
the colored members of this church formed the church
now known as the First Baptist Church, colored,
which still exists on North Fifth Street.
24
Rev. W. M. Young resigned as pastor in October
1867, and for about a year the church was without a
pastor. Then Rev. J. C. Hiden of Portsmouth, Va.,
was called and accepted. He set out at once to com-plete
the building. Various methods were resorted to
in order to secure funds for the completion of the
great building started some ten years before. Boxes
for free-will offerings were placed in the leading stores.
Visits were made to other churches and conventions.
Finally it was decided to rent the pews. It is reported
that in February 1869, the pews rented for the sum
of $10,575.00. In addition to all these means of secur-ing
funds, the church borrowed five thousand dollars
more.
So the building was finally completed, and the
crowning event of all this period took* place, namely,
the dedication of the building on Sunday, May 1, 1870.
Dr. E. T. Winkler, pastor of the Citadel Square Church
of Charleston, S. C, preached at the morning hour,
and Dr. Thomas H. Pritchard preached at the evening
hour. That was indeed a great day in the history of
this church ; for it marked a new day for the Baptists
in this city and section. In their new church house,
the Baptists had a building which would rank with any
in the country. It still stands as a monument to their
vision and consecration. The membership in 1871 was
only 210 and 145 of these were women and children
and only 65 were men. What faith and what devotion
they must have had
!
The bell for the new building was presented to the
church on December 4, 1871 by Brother George R.
French. It was made in part from the old bell which
was sent to Boston to be recast. So the bell that still
calls us to worship carries with it the call which rung
over a century ago. This fact alone ought to help us
25
to be faithful to our day as those radiant souls were to
theirs in years now long gone.
It will be of interest to know that for some years
atfer the new building was erected the Sunday School
was not permitted to meet on the main floor of the
auditorium. Its sessions were held in the balcony.
This caused much discussion from time to time. Final-ly,
in 1875, the Sunday School was allowed to hold its
opening and closing exercises on the main floor, but
had to retire to the balcony for the classes. Because
of the trouble over this matter, we find the ladies in
the "Sewing Society" on March 2, 1874, suggesting a
"Lecture Room." This, however, was not realized for
several years.
In April, 1875, the pastor, Rev. J. C. Hiden, resigned
to accept the call of the Greenville, S. C, church. This
church then extended a call to Rev. J. B. Taylor of Cul-pepper,
Va., and he accepted.
The big task before the new pastor was the paying
of the large debt on the church. This he set about
to do. On January 2, 1876, George R. French made a
stirring appeal for the payment of the debt and offered
to pay $2,000 of the amount. It was not, however,
until May 8, 1881, a little over five years later, that the
debt was finally paid in full. On that date W. A.
French made an appeal and offered to pay $1,500. Then
followed other subscriptions until $6,100 was pledged.
This was $100 more than was needed. Such an ac-complishment
brought great joy to the members. The
congregation lingered in the church until nearly two
o'clock, crying fori joy and congratulating each other
on the splendid achievement.
Free from debt, with a beautiful building, the church
entered upon a new era. The membership grew rapid-ly
to 367 and the Sunday School to 225.
26
After about eight years of faithful leadership, the
pastor, Dr. J. B. Taylor, resigned in March, 1883 to
take effect on July 15th. And on July 16th Dr. Thomas
H. Pritchard was called from the Broadway Baptist
Church of Louisville, Ky. As he has the distinction
of having had the longest pastorate in the history of
the church so far, it is fitting that we mark the new
period with the beginning of his ministry here.
IV.
From Dr. Pritchard to Dr. Hale, 1883-1908
Dr. Pritchard entered upon his duties as pastor on
November 1, 1883. He at once organized the church
for greater work. The following June, we see the
first recorded report of the president of the Woman's
Missionary Society. On December 11th of the same
year, the church purchased a lot at the corner of Fifth
and Wooster Streets for an "Old Ladies' Home." About
a year and a half later the church purchased the lot
and building adjoining the church for a pastor's home
at a cost of $5,500.00.
The membership rose in 1885 to 410 and three Sun-day
Schools with 405 pupils and 45 officers and teach-ers
were reported. On October 31, 1886, thirty-four
members were lettered out to form the Brooklyn
Church, now Calvary. The next month plans for the
long-discussed Lecture Room were made.
About this time, the Second Baptist Church, which
had been formed about 1870 turned over to the Advent
faith under the leadership of J. P. King and was lost
to the Baptists. Some of the members, however, re-turned
to the First Church.
The Baptist State Convention, which had met with
the church in 1867, met again with the church in 1886.
27
Other items showing the progress of the church at
this time were the purchase of the beautiful chande-liers
and the installation of the pipe organ. At the
conference of April 7, 1890, the organ was reported in
place and all paid for except one hundred dollars. Var-ious
persons, including especially Miss Cannie Chasten
and her father, were thanked for their services in con-nection
with securing the organ. Miss Cannie agreed
to play the organ for six months without pay as a
donation to the organ.
The church was prospering so in every way that it
decided to cease the custom of renting the pews.
However, this prosperity was not to go on without
opposition. Trouble, involving a division in the church,
had been going on for some time. This now came to a
head and on October 9, 1892, Dr. Pritchard resigned
to take effect the first of the year. For nine years he
had served the church in his own great way. He was
an outstanding man among Southern Baptists. Before
coming here he had been president of Wake Forest
College for three years, chairman of the Board of Mis-sions
in the State, Associate Editor of the Recorder,
and had held a number of important pastorates, in
Baltimore, Raleigh, and Louisville, Ky. During his
pastorate 483 members were added to the church.
On January 9, 1893, the church called Rev. W. B.
Oliver, and he entered upon his duties as pastor on
March 16th. During his pastorate several things stand
out in the minutes. One of these was the restatement
of strong resolutions concerning the duty of members
in the matter of supporting the church. All members
were expected to assume a just proportion of the ex-penses
of the church, and failing to do so, were ad-judged
guilty of covetousness and subject! to the dis-cipline
of the church.
28
Another important event was the organization of
the Southside Church. This occurred on August 6,
1894, when thirty-four members were dismissed from
the First Church to form the new organization. At
the same time, the Old Ladies' Home was ordered sold
to finish paying for the Lecture Room of the church.
Another event of importance in Dr. Oliver's pas-torate
occurred in the spring of 1897 when the church
entertained the Southern Baptist Convention. That
session of the Convention is said to be the last one
held on the old free entertainment plan.
Due to trouble and division in the church, Dr. Oliver
resigned as pastor to take effect in May, 1898. Dr.
Calvin S. Blackwell was then called and entered upon
his pastorate here November 1, 1898. He was an ora-tor
of the first rank, and so drew large crowds. He was
popular as an evangelist and was much in demand as
a speaker at various conventions and assemblies.
It was during his ministry that the new and im-proved
art windows were placed in the church. Also
during this time we have the first reference to the
B. Y. P. U. meetings. There had been a long while be-fore
this in the 60's a "Youth's Missionary Society" in
which many of the young people had received inspira-tion
for world service and had shared in the work of
helping native workers through the Foreign Mission
Board. The B. Y. P. U. now took up this work and en-larged
it to a service of training for Christian service.
The weekly prayer service was changed about this
time from Thursday to Wednesday night. Also the
Delgado mission was begun while Dr. Blackwell was
pastor. There were 241 additions to the church in the
four years of his pastorate.
Dr. Blackwell resigned early in 1903, and for about
a year the church was without a pastor. Then came
29
Dr. Fred D. Hale in 1904. He came to this church
from Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Dr. Hale was a great organizer. He organized the
church membership into sections and placed some mem-bers
over each section. Later on he placed a member
in charge of each block where members resided. He
organized the officers of the various departments of
church work into an "Advisory Committee." Each
chairman was expected to make a monthly written re-port
of his work. Under such aggressive leadership
the church had to go forward.
Dr. Hale was a great revivalist. He had a great
many evangelistic meetings in the church. One meet-ing,
with Dr. William Lunsford preaching, resulted in
57 additions ; another, with Dr. W. W. Hamilton preach-ing,
resulted in 125 additions; another by Dr. W. L.
Pickard brought in 145 new members ; another by Dr.
M. F. Ham resulted in 100 additions ; and still another,
with Dr. Blackwell, brought 40 additions to the church.
The church membership grew in leaps and bounds.
Dr. Hale believed strongly in missions. Although
the church had been giving small amounts to Home and
Foreign Missions, Dr. Hale soon had the church giving
a thousand dollars to Foreign Missions and also large
sums to Home Missions.
Dr. Hale had deep convictions as to the evils of strong
drink. He worked and spoke against liquor on every
opportunity. He had others speak against it. Gover-nor
Glenn spoke once or twice in this church on the
subject. It has been said that Dr. Hale did more for
prohibition than any other one man in this section of
the State. It was just before the close of his work
here that the State voted in the prohibition statute.
On January 17, 1906 the church voted to enlarge its
Sunday School room at a cost of $3,500.00. The report
30
to the Association the next year, 1907, showed that
the church then had 804 members and a Sunday School
of 375. The contributions amounted to $10,203.29 for
that year. It is manifest that the church was prosper-ing
in many ways.
Feeling the call of God in the call extended him by
the McKinney Avenue Church of Dallas, Texas, Dr.
Hale resigned as pastor on May 23, 1909. In his resig-nation
he wrote some words which will be accepted by
the citizens of the city: "I would rather live in Wil-mington
than anywhere else on the face of the earth."
The close of this notable pastorate has brought us
just a bit beyond the year that marks the last period
in the history of the church ; but we felt that we ought
to do this in order to close Dr. Hale's work here.
V.
From Dr. Hale to the Present, 1908-1933
Dr. Hale left the church enlarged and well organ-ized
for effective service. In a few months after Dr.
Hale's resignation, Dr. J. H. Foster of Anniston, Ala.,
was called by the church. He began his work here on
October 1, 1909.
With his experience, Dr. Foster made great use of the
organized efforts of his predecessor. He at once sought
to enlarge the work. A City Missionary in the person
of Miss Nettie King, now Mrs. L. F. Gore, was em-ployed.
In January 1912, Rev. M. O. Alexander was
licensed to preach, and in February ordained, and made
assistant to the pastor. Brother Alexander also
preached at Wrightsboro and other mission points of
the church. He remained with the church until June
1, 1913 when he resigned to enter the Seminary. The
31
next month, July 14, 1913, we find Rev. W. Marshall
Craig present in the church conference. He was or-dained
on July 23, 1913.
With such an excellent leader and such capable as-sistants,
the church made great progress along all
lines. There were improvements both material and
spiritual. During the first four years of Dr. Foster's
pastorate there were 787 additions to the church and
mission points of the church, an average of 186 per
year. In the same time the church contributed a total of
$49,995.22 to the work locally and to missions and
benevolence. The $5,000 debt on the church was wiped
out, and granolithic sidewalks placed around the
church, a primary room built in the basement, four
classrooms in the gallery, the vestibule floor tiled, the
roof re-covered with slate, an organ motor installed,
and hymn racks and hymn boards secured, under the
leadership of Dr. Foster. Also during this time, in
1914, the marble baptistry, the gift of Mr. John R.
Hanby and his brother, Dr. Joseph D. Hanby, was
built in.
In addition to all these improvements and accom-plishments
in the local church, the Winter Park Church
was started in 1913, and the house at Delgado, which
later became the Gibson Avenue Church, was erected.
The church prospered greatly under the wise leader-ship
of Dr. Foster. Consequently! it was a source of
great regret when he resigned to take effect on August
1, 1915 to accept the presidency of the Bessie Tift Col-lege
of Forsyth, Ga. Recognizing the hand of God,
however, in the call, the church accepted his resigna-tion.
The church at once made the assistant pastor, W.
Marshall Craig, Acting Pastor. He had already won
the hearts of the members. So amiable, so efficient,
32
and so popular was he that many of the members de-sired
the church to elect him as pastor. He served the
church for one year and then resigned to accept the
call to the First Baptist Church of Kinston, N. C.
On October 1, 1916, Dr. John Jeter Hurt became pas-tor.
He set out to make the church still greater in
every possible way. He brought with him Mr. D. H.
Wilcox as assistant. Others were soon added, includ-ing
the genial Mr. W. B. Muse, as office secretary, and
Miss Rose Goodwin as director of Young People's Work.
Later on, in turn, Miss Effie Rose, Miss Gertrude
Loughlin, and Miss Karen Pool served as workers
among the young people and in directing the music.
Dr. Hurt's pastorate covered the period in which
the United States participated in the World War. The
church had seventy-four members in the various
branches of service in the war. Very few losti their
lives; but many received injuries of various kinds.
Reaping something of the financial boom which fol-lowed
the war, the church entered upon a period of
prosperity. In the Seventy-Five Million Campaign of
Southern Baptists, the church received a quota of
$60,000.00, and actually pledged a total of $76,000.00.
Through the leadership of Dr. Hurt, the church spon-sored
the Seaside Assembly at Wrightsville Beach. The
Harbor Island Auditorium was erected by the Tide
Water Power Company and tendered to the Baptists
for this purpose. Helpful informational and inspira-tional
programs were skillfully arranged by Dr. Hurt
and his able assistants. Large crowds came from
various parts of the State to these meetings. How-ever,
after a few years, the Assembly had to be aban-doned.
By far the largest and most important undertaking
fostered under the leadership of Dr. Hurt was the erec-
33
tion of the Sunday School Annex. On August 8, 1920,
we have this interesting item in the minutes: "On
motion of Brother1 L. F. Gore, duly seconded by Wil-liam
Struthers, Jr., the recommendation of the Build-ing
Committee, that a contract be made between the
church ancj L. H. Vollers for the construction of the
new Sunday School building at an estimated cost of
$71,000.00, was adopted."
As time went on, however, and building materials
went up in price, it was found that it would cost far
more than $71,000.00. In fact, it cost quite a sum
over a hundred thousand dollars. Consequently the
church, in spite of great payments, had to sell $50,-
000.00 worth on bonds. These were authorized by the
church on February 8, 1922, and were soon sold to
eager buyers. The bonds were made to mature in five
years, March 1, 1927.
Other important movements during this pastorate
were the "Once-A-Month Meetings for Men," which
brought many famous speakers to the church, and a
Lyceum course which was fostered by the B. Y. P. U.
of the church.
The church thus moved forward along all lines. The
budget for 1921, for example, called for $13,852.00 for
Current Expenses alone. The salary of the pastor was
fixed at $6,000.00 ; that of the assistant at $1,800.00
;
that of the Office Secretary at $900.00 ; and that of the
B. Y. P. U. Director at $750.00. The budget for 1822
called for a still larger amount for the Current Ex-penses,
$16,295.00.
The new Sunday School Annex was used for the
first time on January the first, 1922. Large crowds
attended and thrilling programs were carried out on
that day. The same enthusiasm characterized the
"Home Coming Week" celebrated a little more than a
34
month later, the week of February 20th. All the liv-ing
former pastors were present. Dr. W. B. Oliver of
Anderson, S. C, preached on Wednesday night, his
subject being, "Christian Progress." On Thursday
night, Dr. Calvin S. Blackwell of Norfolk, Va., spoke
on, "The Four Gospels." And on Friday night, Dr.
J. H. Foster, President of Bessie Tift College, Georgia,
spoke on, "The Foundation of God."
Feeling the need of a Baptist church in the eastern
part of the city, a number of the members of the First
Church, together with members from the other Baptist
churches in the city, met in Trinity Methodist Church
on September 1, 1923 and organized the Temple Bap-tist
Church. To this new organization over a hundred
of the members of the First Church went, many of
them being active workers in the First Church.
About a month later, October 7, 1923, Dr. Hurt re-signed
as pastor to accept the call extended him by the
First Baptist Church of Jackson, Tennessee. He took
with him his efficient Office Secretary, Mr. W. B. Muse
;
but he left with the church his amiable and experienced
Assistant, Mr. D. H. Wilcox.
The church then asked Brother Wilcox to assume
charge as Acting Pastor, and called for his ordination.
He gave himself wholeheartedly to his task. The
church at that time was several thousand dollars in
debt above its bonded indebtedness of fifty thousand
dollars. Brother Wilcox urged the members to do their
best. In one special offering he raised some five thou-sand
dollars. In the nine months while he served the
church as Acting Pastor he reduced the debt in notes
and current bills considerably.
It was during this time, in June 1924, that the State
B. Y. P. U. Convention met in this church. The meet-
35
ing was largely attended and greatly enjoyed. Brother
Wilcox proved himself an able leader in every way.
On July 6, 1924, Rev. D. H. Wilcox resigned the work
here in order to accept the position of Assistant Pastor
of the First Baptist Church of Winston-Salem, N. C.
The church at once passed resolutions expressing their
high esteem for Brother Wilcox and his work. He
closed his ministry on September 1, 1924, the date on
which the present pastorate began.
The present pastorate, now almost nine years in
length, has been marked by a few important events.
One of these was the inauguration of the Quarterly
Thank Offerings in 1925. Another was the adoption,
also in 1925, of the "Double Unified Budget," which
brings all contributions and expenditures of the church
through one channel, and makes all giving an act of
worship.
Another, and perhaps the most outstanding event,
was the payment of the entire indebtedness of the
church, which amounted to considerably more than
$50,000.00 in 1924, when the present pastorate began.
By March 1927, when the bonds fell due, the church
had paid the notes and other debts and $23,000.00 on
the bonds. At that time the church prepared and sold
$27,000.00 of new bonds, $9,000.00 to mature each year
for three years. These bonds were paid for each year.
Consequently on April 1, 1930 the church was free
from debt. The church continues to rejoice that the
debt was paid,, and paid when it was ; for since that
time all have felt the pinch of the depression more and
more.
One other event for this period should be mentioned,
the purchase of a Pastor's Home in October, 1930. At
that time, the church purchased from Mr. W. J. Craig,
retiring General Passenger Agent of the A. C. L. Rail-
36
road, his house and lot at 117 South Fourth Street for
$13,000.00. Of this amount Mr. D. H. Penton paid one.
tenth at the time of the purchase, and the church has
since reduced the debt to $7,800.
The pastor has constantly emphasized spirituality
in living, stewardship in giving, and world-wide serv-ice.
As a result of this emphasis the church has come
to support either through its budget, or through in-dividuals
and groups in the church several foreign
workers. The contributions have gradually risen until
for 1932 the church stood second in the State in giv-ing
to the Co-operative Program although only eigh-teenth
in size of membership.
In the eight and two-third years of this pastorate
the church has received into its membership almost one
thousand members and has contributed to all causes
approximately three hundred thousand dollars. For
such blessings of service we ought to be profoundly
thankful to God.
The spirit of co-operation and harmony has been
manifest through all these years. No pastor could ask
for more harmony or unity than the present pastor has
been privileged to have.
As helpers in the work, the pastor has had the fol-lowing:
Mr. S. B. Tabb, as Financial Secretary, from
September 1, 1924 to March 1st, 1925. From that time
to the present Mrs. Mary E. Hanby has been both
Financial and Office Secretary, and has rendered effi-cient
and invaluable service to the church. As Educa-tional
Directors, first came Miss Leila J. Grimes of
White Plains, Georgia, who served most acceptably in
1925-1926. She was followed by the student-minded
and efficient, Rev. Ernest C. Kolb, of Clemson College,
S. C. He served for one year, 1926-1927, and resigned
to pursue further studies in Duke University. Then
37
came Rev. J, A. Neilson from Bluefield, West Virginia,
H& served 'Ma great way from October 1927 to Jan-uary
1, 1929. Since that time the church has had no
other assistants.
In such a brief sketch many things of importance
have had to bej omitted. It has not been possible to
give many resolutions, which would have been of inter-est,
or to give any definite history of the various de-partments
of the church's work. Practically nothing
has been written about the music of the church, and
even the fine work of the deacons could not be followed
in a definite way. It would require a large volume to
give the history of this church in detail.
While we cannot give a definite connected sketch of
the Sunday School, we ought at least to give a list of
the superintendents. The church has had a Sunday
School for at least a century. Unfortunately we do
not have a history of this important part of the
church's life. We are not able to trace even the super-intendents
from the first. The one first mentioned in
the minutes was A. P. Repiton, who was later a pastor.
Later on we find such honorable names as those of
B. F. Mitchell, E. W. Manning, and W. A. French.
Since 1885, the following have served: Joseph H.
Mitchell (1885-1889), Jacob S. Allen (1889-1890), P. B.
Manning (1890-1891), S. G. Hall (1891-1892), C. C
Brown (1892-1894), James Calder (1894-?), L. H. Bat-tle
(1898-1899), George E. Leftwich (1899-1904; 1908-
1909; 1910-1912), John R. Hanby (1904-1906), B. T.
Hopkins (1906-1908), M. E. Graham (1909-1910), F. T.
Allen (1912-1915; 1924-1925), D. H. Howes (1915-
1917), R. F. Coleman (1918), D. H. Wilcox (1919-1923),
Edwin B. Josey (1925-1926), E. C. Kolb (1926-1927),
J. C. King (1927-1930), L. C. Robertson, Jr., (1930 to
present). These men, with their associates, the offi-cers
and teachers, have done a marvelous work for the
Master.
38
Thus we come to the close of the first one hundred
and twenty-five years of this church's service to God
and to humanity. Its defects have been apparent
through the years. But God has blessed and used the
church in a great way. Its workers and members have
gone out into many sections of the nation. Through
its gifts, it has touched the uttermost parts of the world,
Its worth to the moral and spiritual life of the city, to
the State, and to the nation, cannot be estimated in
human language.
Our prayer is that during all the years to come the
church may continue to grow in favor with God and
man, and have continued prosperity in things spiritual,
and, as far as is best for it, in things material.
THE PASTORS OF THE CHURCH
J. C. Grigg (1833-1834)
A. W. Chambliss (1835-1836)
A. P. Repiton (1839 and 1843-1844)
A. J. Battle (1842-1843)
James McDaniel (1844-1851)
W. H. Jordan (1852-1855)
J. L. Prichard (1856-1862)
W. M. Young (1864-1867)
J. C. Hiden (1868-1875)
J. B. Taylor (1875-1883)
T. H. Pritchard (1883-1892)
W. B. Oliver (1893-1898)
C. S. Blackwell (1898-1903)
Fred D. Hale (1904-1909)
J. H. Foster (1909-1915)
W. M. Craig (Acting, 1915-1916)
John J. Hurt (1916-1923)
D. H. Wilcox (Acting, 1923-1924)
J. M. Kester (1924—)
39
CHURCH OFFICERS, 1933
Clerk, J. S. Lane; Assistant Clerk, B. V. Sunofsky
Treasurer, Current Expenses, F. T. Allen
Treasurer, Missions, Mrs. J. D. VANN
Financial Secretary, Mrs. Mary E. Hanby
Superintendent of Sunday School, L. C. ROBERTSON, Jr.
Assistant Superintendent, James F. Warwick
Director Young People's Work, J. E. JOHNSON
President, Woman's Missionary Society, Mrs. A. M. ALDERMAN
DEACONS
J. D. Vann, Chairman, S. B. Tabb, Secretary
F. T. Allen L. F. Gore
Dr. A. M. Baldwin H. A. Hanby
J. L. Baldwin J. R. Hanby
R. H. Brady E. B. Josey
D. L. Dobson D. C. Marshall
Ray Funderburk J. A. Orrell
D. H. Penton
W. C. Peterson
L. C. Robertson, Jr.
Dr. W. T. Smith
J. F. Warwick
North Carolina w~ —"-]J
- Raleigh, N. U
GC 286.175627 K42h
Kester, John Marcus, 1887-1936.
Historical sketch of the First Baptist C
3 3091 00112 6259
DATE DUE
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DEMC O 38-257